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Waverly Utilities previews 2026 budget and proposes 5% residential, 6% commercial rate increases
Summary
Staff presented a preliminary 2026 budget that assumes roughly $22 million in operating revenues and proposed a 5% residential and 6% commercial rate increase to cover rising purchase power and transmission costs; board discussed rate-stabilization and decommissioning funds and directed staff to return with updated figures.
Waverly Utilities staff presented a preliminary 2026 budget to the Board of Trustees, warning of upward pressure from purchase power and transmission costs and proposing a 5 percent increase for residential rates and 6 percent for commercial and industrial services.
Kurt (staff member) told the board that the utility is proposing to keep kilowatt-hour sales flat for 2026 while budgeting operating revenues of about $22,000,000. He said the draft budget assumes a 6 percent increase in purchase power costs and a 15 percent increase in transmission charges for 2026. "We are anticipating instability in the marketplace," Kurt said, adding that transmission costs are being affected by regional transmission construction and higher demand from large new loads.
Kurt also described the utility’s current financial position: the board was told WMEU is still in the black for 2025 but by a narrow margin of about $140,000, and staff may return in November with a proposed budget amendment if year-end figures change.
Board discussion focused on long-term risk and smoothing increases. A trustee urged maintaining or rebuilding the rate-stabilization fund to offset projected double-digit rate pressure in 2027–2029; another suggested modulating the annual contribution to the decommissioning fund. Kurt and other staff said future rate pressure will be driven in part by capital and maintenance needs at regional generation and transmission providers and by market capacity constraints.
The draft budget assumes modest general increases for benefits (3 percent for health insurance and 2 percent for other insurance) and a 6 percent fixed-cost recovery charge increase; staff said the list of capital projects for 2026 is limited to standard distribution maintenance and a large, once-in-decades transmission rebuild between two substations.
No formal vote was taken on the 2026 budget at the meeting; staff will present a revised draft at the October review and bring final figures for adoption in November. The board discussed using the rate-stabilization fund to moderate consumer impacts if larger increases are required in future years.
