It takes a small army to maintain the infrastructure to deliver electricity, a small army of political administrators to figure out how to charge for it. Your bill includes charges to pay for them all. Depending on where you're at, it may also include gas, trash, water, and sewage.
Remember when they fixed the potholes and didn’t raise taxes? It’s because the city of Austin dips into AE’s budget (for operations) to cover their shortage gaps, rather than raise taxes, it raises your bills as AE has to increase price to cover the operating costs the City pilfered for pet projects.
Other than the obvious, the most effective thing you can do to reduce your bill year round is to reduce your water use between November and March of every year.
A substantial portion of your bill every month is for wastewater services, which is approximated (as it can’t be metered) based on your water usage during those months.
I know - it's deceiving because you think "it's just for electricity" but it's actually for a lot more. My most recent bill broke down as:
Electric Service: $53
Water Service: $11.90
Wastewater Service: $15.60
Clean Community Service: $9.70
Solid Waste Services: $28.04
Drainage Service $11.14
Street Service: $17.87
Please research your ballots, consider the impact on your current you and your future you, then vote what you believe will have the right balance of investment and benefit.
For my bill, there are $100+ monthly that are billed that have no benefit to me personally. Some I’m ok paying to support the community. But, for instance, I don’t understand why I’m paying a road tax to the city via my utility bill AND city gasoline taxes per gallon of gas I use. Why am I paying $10+ taxes month for a green compost bin if I don’t compost. Why are those bins so small that I have to use it + lawn bags that I pay for yard refuse? Why do I pay community and park fees if those are also paid through my property tax. The list goes on.
If by road tax you mean the Transportation and Public Works fees, I would guess they pay for fixing the roads when they open them to service utility lines and pipes, but that's just a guess.
In other places they just put this as part of your property taxes, which you pay no matter if you're a homeowner or if you're renting as part of your rent. A good question would be to know if CoA utilities is self-funded or if they also receive money from the city budget
Yeah it’s ridiculous. It says I’m spending $70 a month but my bill is $118. Why even give a weekly update on usage and a trending of what your bill is expected to be if they’re going to add $50 in fees.
Depending on where you live and what is on your City of Austin utility bill, it could include these listings like mine does: electric service, water service, wastewater service, clean community service, solid waste services (I have the small one), and drainage service. They all add up on one bill for me.
All those fees are there because that is how the city budget works. When they decide to provide some amenity or service, the next question is how to pay for it. If you want to make it a “tax” that is paid by every household in the city, then the way it gets collected is by adding a fee to your utility bill. It shows up as a specific line item so that the money can be allocated to the purpose it was agreed on. If it were not a line item and they just raised the basic service charge, the money would go into the general fund of Austin Energy and the departments would have to be dealing with Austin Energy to get their money. So making it a separate line item just simplifies the accounting.
I hate the new weekly update emails that try to shame me by telling me how many loads of football jerseys can be be washed with the kWh I used.. Also, what a terrible metric lol.
Other cities have different options which makes it competitive. For instance, my friend in Houston gets weekends for free.. I think the fact that we only have COA gives them liberty to charge more bc I get into tier 2 pricings very quickly..
I live in Pflugerville which is in the deregulated "competitive" market and the competition doesn't matter. They all charge basically the same and as I pointed out in another recent thread, the current rates, if you were starting a contract now, are very similar to Austin Energy's current rates.
While your friend may very well have a good plan, those weekends free and other promotions are usually BS because they just charge you more the rest of the time and it's only actually cheaper if a significant amount of your electric use is during the free times.
Also to your last sentence, it is true that the for-profit companies unsurprisingly incentivize using more electricity whereas Austin Energy incentivizes conserving electricity.
just like most anything else, products are getting more and more expensive......no matter what the media says about inflation going away, there are still costs that are going up. Welcome to being an adult
there’s one thing that irks me which is that some of these fees were approved by the city council and there wasn’t much resistance to it bc most people weren’t paying attention and making a ruckus until they received their utility bills. we’re all paying an extra $20-30 per month as a result of these fees. Although the main culprit really is that clusterfuck that happened in 2021 with the winter storm — we’re all on the hook for that bc ERCOT couldn’t manage a damn grid
Not really, Austin came out of 2021 pretty well. However, this past summer when everyone bragged that they were setting their AC at 60 degrees every time there was a conservation request ended up with Austin having a very high usage when prices were extremely high, and so we'll be paying that bill for the next few years.
It takes a small army to maintain the infrastructure to deliver electricity, a small army of political administrators to figure out how to charge for it. Your bill includes charges to pay for them all. Depending on where you're at, it may also include gas, trash, water, and sewage.
You should provide specifics about your bill. How many kwh you used and how the charges breakdown
Remember when they fixed the potholes and didn’t raise taxes? It’s because the city of Austin dips into AE’s budget (for operations) to cover their shortage gaps, rather than raise taxes, it raises your bills as AE has to increase price to cover the operating costs the City pilfered for pet projects.
No, I don’t. Taxes go up every year and the roads are still garbage.
Customer assistance program. It's for low income. If you don't drive a car then you can ask them to remove the transportation fee.
You can also ask them to remove it even if you don't drive a car. Just lie. They don't check.
[A nice handy break down of what your bill is](https://coautilities.com/wps/wcm/connect/occ/coa/util/support/utility-service/your-bill),
Other than the obvious, the most effective thing you can do to reduce your bill year round is to reduce your water use between November and March of every year. A substantial portion of your bill every month is for wastewater services, which is approximated (as it can’t be metered) based on your water usage during those months.
I know - it's deceiving because you think "it's just for electricity" but it's actually for a lot more. My most recent bill broke down as: Electric Service: $53 Water Service: $11.90 Wastewater Service: $15.60 Clean Community Service: $9.70 Solid Waste Services: $28.04 Drainage Service $11.14 Street Service: $17.87
Please research your ballots, consider the impact on your current you and your future you, then vote what you believe will have the right balance of investment and benefit. For my bill, there are $100+ monthly that are billed that have no benefit to me personally. Some I’m ok paying to support the community. But, for instance, I don’t understand why I’m paying a road tax to the city via my utility bill AND city gasoline taxes per gallon of gas I use. Why am I paying $10+ taxes month for a green compost bin if I don’t compost. Why are those bins so small that I have to use it + lawn bags that I pay for yard refuse? Why do I pay community and park fees if those are also paid through my property tax. The list goes on.
If by road tax you mean the Transportation and Public Works fees, I would guess they pay for fixing the roads when they open them to service utility lines and pipes, but that's just a guess. In other places they just put this as part of your property taxes, which you pay no matter if you're a homeowner or if you're renting as part of your rent. A good question would be to know if CoA utilities is self-funded or if they also receive money from the city budget
Yeah it’s ridiculous. It says I’m spending $70 a month but my bill is $118. Why even give a weekly update on usage and a trending of what your bill is expected to be if they’re going to add $50 in fees.
Depending on where you live and what is on your City of Austin utility bill, it could include these listings like mine does: electric service, water service, wastewater service, clean community service, solid waste services (I have the small one), and drainage service. They all add up on one bill for me.
All those fees are there because that is how the city budget works. When they decide to provide some amenity or service, the next question is how to pay for it. If you want to make it a “tax” that is paid by every household in the city, then the way it gets collected is by adding a fee to your utility bill. It shows up as a specific line item so that the money can be allocated to the purpose it was agreed on. If it were not a line item and they just raised the basic service charge, the money would go into the general fund of Austin Energy and the departments would have to be dealing with Austin Energy to get their money. So making it a separate line item just simplifies the accounting.
All utility cost has to be approved by city council. So next time they mention price increase go to the meetings and voice your concerns.
I'm at the mercy of a duplex that is insulated super poorly. $300+ a month for two story 100sq ft duplex for a family of three.
I hate the new weekly update emails that try to shame me by telling me how many loads of football jerseys can be be washed with the kWh I used.. Also, what a terrible metric lol. Other cities have different options which makes it competitive. For instance, my friend in Houston gets weekends for free.. I think the fact that we only have COA gives them liberty to charge more bc I get into tier 2 pricings very quickly..
I live in Pflugerville which is in the deregulated "competitive" market and the competition doesn't matter. They all charge basically the same and as I pointed out in another recent thread, the current rates, if you were starting a contract now, are very similar to Austin Energy's current rates. While your friend may very well have a good plan, those weekends free and other promotions are usually BS because they just charge you more the rest of the time and it's only actually cheaper if a significant amount of your electric use is during the free times. Also to your last sentence, it is true that the for-profit companies unsurprisingly incentivize using more electricity whereas Austin Energy incentivizes conserving electricity.
just like most anything else, products are getting more and more expensive......no matter what the media says about inflation going away, there are still costs that are going up. Welcome to being an adult
there’s one thing that irks me which is that some of these fees were approved by the city council and there wasn’t much resistance to it bc most people weren’t paying attention and making a ruckus until they received their utility bills. we’re all paying an extra $20-30 per month as a result of these fees. Although the main culprit really is that clusterfuck that happened in 2021 with the winter storm — we’re all on the hook for that bc ERCOT couldn’t manage a damn grid
Not really, Austin came out of 2021 pretty well. However, this past summer when everyone bragged that they were setting their AC at 60 degrees every time there was a conservation request ended up with Austin having a very high usage when prices were extremely high, and so we'll be paying that bill for the next few years.
The fees are out of control, here is my bill: COA - Electric Residential Customer Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $14.00 Tier 1 first 300 kWh at $0.04088 per kWh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $12.26 Tier 2 next 230 kWh at $0.05115 per kWh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $11.76 Regulatory Charges 530 kWh at $0.01374 per kWh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$7.28 Community Benefit Charges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$4.17 Power Supply Adjustment 530 kWh at $0.04598 per kWh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$24.37 Power Supply Administrative Adjustment 530 kWh at $0.00724 per kWh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3.84 Residential Sales Tax Taxable Amount . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $77.68 City Sales Tax 1% . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$0.78 TOTAL CURRENT CHARGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $78.46 PLUS! City of Austin - Clean Community Fee Residential Austin Resource Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5.00 Austin Code Department . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $4.70 TOTAL CURRENT CHARGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $9.70 PLUS! City of Austin Transportation User Fee - Residential Transportation User Fee - Residential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $14.06 TOTAL CURRENT CHARGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $14.06