Town of St. Paul reviews gas and electric franchise fees, residents to incur small increase

The Town of St. Paul has been reviewing its franchise fees to see if the fees are adequate. The town has two franchise fees that are collected by third-party companies, those being gas and electric.

The review, done by the town administration, started about a year ago. Administration was tasked with discovering when the fees were last negotiated, and what (if any) improvements have happened since they were last negotiated.

“Just this year, we changed all of our lights within town to LED,” the mayor explained the improvements and what’s to come, “we still have main street, which may be difficult because those are all the fancy [decorative] lighting.” 3.36 average consumption

Mayor Maureen Miller explained that after what she described as “tremendous examination”, the town council decided to increase the franchise fee for electricity, resulting in on average $3.36 average consumption fee per resident.

The town also looked at its gas consumption, said Miller, “that actually increased around five percent.” The percentage may at first glance appear large, however as the mayor explained, “their matrix is calculated differently.” The cost will be comparable to or slightly less than the electricity increase.

“There’s no way we can continue to improve services within the community, without acknowledging those fees,” Miller explained that the costs had to be raised or the town would be out quite a bit of money.

It wasn’t an easy decision, but it was what we felt was necessary for the community. – Maureen Miller, Mayor for the Town of St. Paul

Residents can expect a public notice to go out from the town on the exact increase percentage and what that may look like in terms of monthly cost increase for the residents on their electrical and gas bills.