Grant PUD approves 2013 budget

EPHRATA - Grant County PUD commissioners unanimously adopted a budget of about $305 million during a regular commission meeting on Monday.

Although adopting next year's rate schedule was also on the agenda, PUD commissioners did not make a decision during the meeting.

Commissioners are expected to discuss the issue in the coming days, and they have until the end of the year to announce a 2013 rate schedule, according to PUD officials.

The district originally presented a $312.4 million budget to ratepayers in October, and gathered public input on the proposed 2013 plan during several public hearings.

PUD Commissioner Terry Brewer said he wasn't in favor of the proposed budget. Instead, Brewer suggested a $5 million reduction which would bring the budget to about $305 million.

"I think there is room to reduce the budget," he said. "I know the district has gone through some tough times before because of budget restraints and I think we can do that going forward."

Commissioner Dale Walker said the proposed 2013 budget should be given a second look.

"We need to take a look at the budget as a whole and see if we can't cut some out of it," he said. "I think we owe it to ratepayers to do that."

Walker made the motion to approve the revised budget that reflected the $5 million cut. Commissioners unanimously approved the motion.

The proposed 2013 budget also included rate increases in order to meet the PUD's targeted 8 percent revenue increase previously adopted by the board.

The proposed rate increase would have generated about $10.9 million in additional revenue, according to budget documents previously released by the district.

However, several representatives from the county's agricultural industry spoke against the rate increases during Monday's meeting.

Steve Swanson, of the SGL group, said the area's affordable power costs were what initially attracted BMW and SGL to Grant County. If rates dramatically increased, businesses looking into the area might end up looking elsewhere, he said.

"It could very well change our direction for future expansion, because it's a very big part of our costs," said Swanson. "We need to think about the future of Grant County and the businesses that could be here."

Dennis Conley, who spoke on behalf of the Ag Power Users Group, urged commissioners not to increase rates for any rate classes next year and instead work on increasing retail sales volume.

He said that increasing rates would only equate to ratepayers using less power. If power bills start to go up, people will switch to energy efficient appliances and find other ways to cut the amount of power they use, said Conley.

The same is true for major power users, like food processors, manufacturers and other agricultural companies, he said. Conley said that power usage among irrigators in the county, which makes up about 12 percent of retail sales, have been using about 2 percent less power each year since 2008.

"If this is decreasing at 2 percent a year, you've got to have a lot of growth of new industry to offset that," said Conley. "My suggestion is that we take a year off here and just freeze the rates for 2013 at 2012 rates."

Although the PUD would take a loss in income as a result of having no rate increase next year, Conley said the agency could use funds from another category in the budget to offset the impact.

David Bailey, of the Grant County Industrial Alliance, said that any rate increase could have significant effects on various industrial users.

"If you have an even 1 percent or a fraction of a percentage increase or decrease, it is going to have a significant effect on their bottom line," said Bailey. "It will affect various industries that are critical and important to this county."