Mayor: El Paso Electric will pass along Trump tax cut savings to customers
El Paso Electric’s savings as a result of the recently approved Trump tax cuts will result in refunds to the utility’s customers, El Paso Mayor Dee Margo and the utility announced Tuesday.
El Paso Electric recently proposed a rate increase in the amount of $39 million, El Paso Mayor Dee Margo said. The City negotiated the rate increase down to about $14 million, the mayor said.
During negotiations, the City of El Paso requested, in a “very unique rate case,” that if there was a change in the tax law, that the benefit of any reduction in taxes benefiting El Paso Electric be passed along to the ratepayers. “That is exactly what happened with this Trump tax plan and it amounts to approximately $21 million in savings,” Margo told ABC-7.
The mayor said the savings will essentially wipe out El Paso Electric’s rate increase. “To have $21 million come back means, in effect, that the ratepayer will not have any increase in their rates and will actually be receiving a $7 million rate reduction (later this year),” Margo said, “46 percent of that seven million applies to residential ratepayers – pretty good news all around.”
“EPE is currently calculating the changes and impacts of the new tax law to determine the amount of the refund to be filed in mid-April. EPE expects Texas customers will begin to see the refund as a credit on their bills by mid-year 2018 following PUCT approval of its refund filing,” the utility said in a statement emailed to ABC-7.
The utility further stated, “El Paso Electric will file a refund tariff with the Public Utility Commission of Texas and municipal regulatory authorities within 120 days after the enactment of the law making the tax-rate change reflecting the reduction in federal-income-tax rates.”
