A financial report for Gainesville Regional Utilities suggests rate increases will be the norm, rather than the exception.
The report discussed at Thursday's Gainesville City Commission meeting is from PFM Financial Consultants, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is called the GRU 2019 Cash Balance Study.
The report says electric rate increases of four percent are needed in the next fiscal year. In the following years, the utility would need increases of:
- 2.7 percent in 2021;
- 2.3 percent in 2022;
- 3 percent in 2023;
- 2 percent in 2024.
Wastewater rate increases would go down during the same period from 4.8 percent to 2 percent.
Those would be subject to city commission approval and are based on the current amount of money — budgeted at $38 million for 2019 — the commission transfers each year from GRU to fund about a third of general government operations.