El Paso City Council votes against settlement for Texas Gas Service rate
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- El Paso City Council voted against a proposed settlement that would have brought the proposed gas rate increase down to 10%.
The Texas Gas Service proposed to bring rates up 27% as part of their service consolidation throughout the state. City Council unanimously voted against that proposal two weeks ago, and again voted against this proposal.
This new proposal would bring rates up by just 10%, but Mayor Renard Johnson doesn't think they should go up at all and believes that they can get a better rate.
"I think we can do better. El Pasoans are feeling the increases on the utilities and this is something we've got to make sure that we can do better."
Johnson was the tie breaking vote. The proposal was voted against 5-4. Representative Chris Canales was one of the members who voted for the proposal. He wanted to eliminate the risk of having a higher rate increase altogether.
"I think that it's tough to say that I'm comfortable with gambling with other people's money," said Canales. "I personally voted for this settlement because I don't think that we're going to do better than what was on the table."
The city's legal team and Texas Gas are still working together to find another settlement. Canales is worried they won't get a better offer, but Johnson is confident they can.
"I think it can only improve," said Johnson. "we can always accept tomorrow the 8%. But I think, you heard from council strongly today, that they want to make sure that that's the best number. And that number they feel is lower."
The decision now goes to the Texas Railroad Commission. They'll begin to discuss the case in the next couple weeks. Canales believes that they will continue with the original 27% increase, but also knows the city is working to make things better.
"In addition to rejecting the settlement agreement today, we still directed the staff to continue working on this and trying to fight for the lowest increase possible."
