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Retired APS Employee Says Rate Increase Excessive

Sedona AZ (September 5, 2016) – The following is a letter to the SedonaEye.com editor:

Retired APS Employee: Execs Get Fat While Seniors Suffer
Information & Perspective by Warren Woodward
September 5, 2016 • Sedona, Arizona

The ACC is tasked with the responsibility to protect AZ ratepayers by weighing the costs and benefits of all state utility requests.

The ACC is tasked with the responsibility to protect AZ ratepayers by weighing the costs and benefits of all state utility requests.

Recently I was reading the APS rate case docket at the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) and I came across a submission by retired APS employee Cynthia Butler.

Cynthia echoes the concerns that many, many retirees have expressed in the docket. Nobody’s pensions or Social Security have increased but APS wants more money. Many retirees are already having trouble meeting their budgets. An increase to APS is something they simply cannot afford.

What makes Cynthia’s docket submission different, however, is her perspective as a former APS employee who has seen and experienced firsthand the waste at APS.

Cynthia says, “I have personally seen the waste APS affords itself ….”

Here’s her story:

First, I would like to say I am and always will be eternally grateful to APS for 20 of the best years of employment in my life. However, the proposed new rate increase is totally excessive.

Normally, I don’t comment on these matters but lately, even with a house that is under 1,500 sq. ft. and has had new sealed doors installed with extra insulation put in the attic, shade blinds on all windows and a new air conditioner, my electric bill in July was over $300.00 which is one-third my take home APS pension and I have kept the cooling much warmer than I am comfortable with.

This is where a retiree draws the line. How much more could they possibly ask of the average person? Even my 94 year old mother keeps her home so hot I worry about her safety while she is trying to save a buck.

I have friends who live in homes that are so small and hot I won’t visit them in the summer months and they keep ALL of their lights, radios, TVs and fans off with shades drawn and they live like animals to be able to afford their current electric bill. They won’t even turn their ovens on for cooking. Paying more on their electric bill means them going without part of the groceries they would like to buy and they work for the City of Phoenix who has cut salaries and raises year after year.

aps logoI have personally seen the waste APS affords itself – believe me. With so many layers of management upon management, I personally worked in a department where the management outweighed the non-management employees by more than 2 to 1 with the layers of management being paid well while everyone else settled for tiny yearly raises if they were lucky enough to get a raise at all.

From the retiree grapevine I hear that nothing has changed. Let’s stop the waste, if I have to live on a budget as my friends and family do then APS should learn to function within their budget and their budget should not be an unending supply of money provided by rate increases via the Corporation Commission and passed onto the customers.

A 5.74% rate increase is going to add almost $20 a month minimum to the little people with small houses while retired folks don’t have the benefit of offsetting the cost of that.

APS pensions don’t allow cost of living raises and Social Security certainly doesn’t give retired people a 5.74% increase yearly. Even the County can freeze a homeowner’s tax rates if they earn under a certain amount and are of a certain age, maybe our electric company could take a lesson from that.

Please only allow APS only a rate increase that does not include waste, political contributions and unnecessary promotions compared to amounts of employees. They need to work more wisely and within a reasonable budget with little room for waste.

Thank you and please take my words into consideration.

Cynthia Butler APS Retiree
http://images.edocket.azcc.gov/docketpdf/0000172795.pdf

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3 Comments

  1. E. Maddock says:

    Lucky me! As a flatlander (whatever that means but I’ve a sneaky idea) I live among the pines, junipers, and cypress tress and except for maybe the first three days in August have not had the need to run my AC. That to my recollection is the first August since 1977, when we moved to Sedona, that the month of August hasn’t been the biggest hog of electricity. Did global warming take a vacation?

  2. N. Baer says:

    For those who are interested in why electric utility rates are excessive, it’s because utilities are funded based on the amount they spend on capital improvements. In other words, the more the utility spends, the higher the rate will be approved by the state regulator. Truly a rip off. I remember when I worked for MI statement government (1975) this was essentially how many grants were funded.

  3. Bill Hand says:

    Where’s one get fire reports of meter fires? Seems they’d be well out of public eye.

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