Austin Utilities Board of Commissioners approve 2020 budget with no adjustments to electric and natural gas costs

The Austin Utilities Board of Commissioners approved the 2020 Austin Utilities budget and related rate adjustments at a recent board meeting.  The annual budget is used to set rates. For 2020, customers can anticipate their electric and natural gas costs to remain the same with no adjustments.  KAUS spoke with Mark Nibaur, General Manager with Austin Utilities who gave the main reason to keep electric and natural gas costs the same in 2020…

A water increase of 4.9% for both residential and business customers will become effective with the January 2020 utility bill. The effect of the overall residential water rate adjustments will be an average monthly bill increase of $1.48.  About 85% of Austin Utilities current customers are residential. Small to mid-sized business customers can expect to see monthly water increases in the range of $3.32 to $22.36.

 The water increase comes as Austin Utilities continues to make investments to their water infrastructure. The largest item in the budget is the replacement of water mains in coordination with city street replacements.