Well, the annual screaming about power bills has begun. It happens every year about this time, almost like clockwork.
So here is the almost annual response. Yes, power bills are high. Not out of line with the same bills for other towns our size, because I check. You should check. Don’t compare to Weatherford or Piedmont. Look at same size towns, where costs are shared among the same number of people as they are here.
It isn’t that someone is defrauding the residents. It isn’t because someone is lining their pockets – unless it is the power corporations, not the towns.
The problem is that in Oklahoma, there is no way for a town to raise money other than a bond issue, sales taxes or through enterprise funds – like electricity, water, sewer and garbage collection. Unlike towns in other states, Oklahoma municipalities cannot levy their own property tax.
Maybe that’s a good thing, because no one likes taxes. But everyone likes a fire department that comes when the house next door is on fire, or a police department that rolls when there is someone beating the stuffing out of their spouse or neighbor. And those things cost money. Where does that money come from? In other states, property taxes.
In Oklahoma, enterprise funds. In other words, your power bill. The utilities must pay their own way, that is, cover their own costs. The difference between costs and services delivered to the residents is what funds the city services. And cities, at least Watonga, try to find that balance between staying in the black and charging too much, because charging too much isn’t good for anyone.
Another question I have often asked, but never gotten an answer to, is why does electricity by the kilowatt cost more here, where we create and export a large portion of the energy the rest of the nation uses, than it does in other states? This is a separate question than why is my power bill higher than my brother’s in another state.
Why, as a net exporter, do we pay as much or more than importers? We make it here, it should be cheaper here.
That’s the part I don’t understand.
The ancillary column on this page this week tackles part of the issue, that of permitting and red tape. Maybe the reforms called for would ease the price to us a little. Maybe not.
But until the statutes change and allow cities to create some other form of revenue to pay for things like fire and police departments, city workers and street and alley upkeep, Oklahomans are going to keep footing the bill.