City Light gets OK for 13.8 percent increase

The Seattle City Council, in a 5-4 vote, voted in a committee meeting Thursday to increase City Light rates 13.8 percent, beginning in January.

While the new rate increase was approved by the full council Thursday, meeting as the Budget Committee, it must be approved by the council on Nov. 23 when it takes up the new budget.

The 13.8 percent increase is higher than the 8.8 percent proposed by Mayor Greg Nickels in his 2010 budget.

Under the proposed increase, the typical monthly household bill of $44 would go up an additional $6.27 per month.

Councilman Bruce Harrell, chairman of the Energy and Technology Committee, had preferred a lower increase of 7.9 percent that would have given the utility enough money to operate efficiently.

The 13.8 percent increase, however, will create greater certainty the utility can maintain its AA- bond rating. That would allow it to borrow at a lesser interest rate when it issues bonds in April 2010 and help to fund its capital-improvement plan. The utility had been rated A since 2001. Its rating was bumped up to AA- in 2008.

Less than 5 percent of electric and gas utilities in the United States fall into the AA- rating.