The yearslong effort by Winter Park to bury power lines spared most residents from outages last October when Hurricane Milton roared through the region. Now the city is moving to finish the job.
With about 81% of lines underground, city commissioners Wednesday unanimously adopted a $233.2 million budget for fiscal year 2025-26 that increases a portion of residents’ electric bills to keep the work on track to finish by 2030.
Under an amendment Mayor Sheila DeCiccio proposed at the Sept. 10 meeting, what’s known as the “nonfuel charge” on bills will increase Oct. 1 by 7.44% instead of the previously proposed 3%. The proposal passed 3-2 with Vice Mayor Marty Sullivan and Warren Lindsey opposed.
Even with the increase, residents will see a dip in their electric bills because fuel costs have declined.
DeCiccio said at the meeting that without the increase commissioners would have to come back annually for the next five to seven years for a rate hike or bond issue while falling further behind on undergrounding.
“By increasing the nonfuel rate by only 3% we will have to stop undergrounding seven to eight months into the year as we will run out of money to pay for labor to underground as we did this year,” she said. “This will impact undergrounding by extending it out eight to nine years instead of completion by 2030.”
According to information from the city, a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours in August received a bill of $137.98 but would get a $127.25 bill in October — a 7.78% drop. A customer using 1,300 kilowatt-hours with a $184.51 bill in August would receive a bill of $171.18 in October — a 7.22% drop. These take into account both the higher nonfuel costs and lower fuel costs.
The city buys its power from others, including Florida Municipal Power Association and the Orange Utilities Commission, and they use mostly natural gas to generate it, City Manager Randy Knight told the Sentinel on Thursday. Natural gas prices have mostly headed down in recent months.
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“So everybody’s bill is going down significantly over the next six months on the fuel component of the bill,” Knight said.
Sullivan and Lindsey said they opposed the increase in part because current low fuel costs won’t necessarily continue.
“Who knows what it’s going to be with the international conflagrations going on,” Sullivan said. “I wouldn’t bank on it remaining low.”
The city started undergrounding in 2008 and about 100 miles of line are buried. According to a city map showing the status of the work, projects remaining are mostly on the east and west sides.
The budget commissioners adopted represents an 8.75% increase compared to the current fiscal year’s spending plan with an operating millage rate of 4.0923 mills. The city’s fiscal year runs Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.
City tax revenues represent a 5.75% increase from the rolled-back rate of 3.8697 mills due to higher assessed property values. The city’s tax rate has remained the same for 17 years but the overall rate will drop due to lower debt service millage.
The debt service millage rate is 0.2062 mills — down from 0.2379 mills this year — generating $2.5 million for general obligation bonds voters approved in 2016 by voters to fund construction of the Winter Park Library & Events Center
