ANAHEIM : Possible Utility Hikes Face Council Tonight

The City Council tonight is scheduled to wade through a maze of five proposed water and five proposed electricity rate changes.

Some of the proposals would raise residential rates a little and business rates a lot. Others would raise residential rates a lot and business rates a little. Some proposals even offer rate decreases to one group while hitting the other with an increase. Other proposals would make equal increases to residential and business customers.

If and when the rate increases are adopted, the city’s electricity revenue will go up 1% or 2% and its water revenue will go up 3.1% or 4.95%, city documents show. The new money--the documents do not show how much will be raised--will be used to put some electrical lines underground, to wire a New Mexico power plant into the city’s electrical system, to replace some leaky plastic piping with metal pipe and to begin operating a new water well.

Residential and commercial electricity rates will remain about 15% to 20% less than charged by Southern California Edison to its customers in surrounding cities. Industrial rates would be about 1% higher than Edison’s. The city’s water rates will remain slightly higher across the board than comparable cities, the documents show.

The utility department began devising the proposals last month after the council said it wanted options and postponed voting on a plan that would have raised the residential water rate by 2.6% and the residential electricity rate by 3.8%. Businesses would have seen their water rates increase 8.2%. Some large industrial users would have seen their electricity rate remain the same, while smaller retail businesses would have seen an increase of 3.5%.

The council last approved a utility rate increase in December, 1991. The average electricity rate then jumped 3.5% and the average water rate by 4.5%. Three months earlier, the council rejected increases that were 1% higher than those finally adopted. The council also adopted a 2% utility tax in 1991.

The meeting begins at 5 p.m. at City Hall, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd.

Anaheim Utility Rate Proposals

The Anaheim City Council will consider tonight 10 options for changes in the city’s water and electric rates.

WATER

Single-family Apartments Commercial/ homes and condos industrial Average Option 1 No change 5.7% 11.9% 4.95% Option 2 -2.6% 5.7 15.4 4.95 Option 3 No change 3.6 7.3 3.1 Option 4 3.1 3.1 3.1 3.1 Option 5 -2.6 3.6 11.0 3.1

ELECTRIC

Residential* Commercial Industrial average Option 1 3.8% 3.5% No change 2.0% Option 2 2.0 3.5 1.0% 2.0 Option 3 1.9 1.8 No change 1.0 Option 4 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 Option 5 1.0 2.4 No change 1.0

* Includes single-family homes, apartments and condominiums

Source: Anaheim Public Utilities Department