KSHB 41 reporter Rachel Henderson covers neighborhoods in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. Share your story idea with Rachel.
—
With PILOT fees top of mind for Wyandotte County residents, KSHB 41's Rachel Henderson wanted to address a lingering questions residents have brought up about removing the PILOT fee.
When you get your utility bill each month, the fees are outlined in three different categories: BPU service charges, UG service charges and taxes and fees.
The PILOT falls under taxes and fees, but it's also listed as a UG charge.
Even if the PILOT fee goes away, wouldn’t BPU just increase their rates?
KSHB 41 asked the Mayor Tyrone Garner that question Friday in a phone interview.
"That's why we have, that's why you have the Board of Public Utilities, and that was our stance," Garner said. "The Board of Public Utilities was created by city officials decades ago for them to manage those types of scenarios."
The Board of Utilities says it wasn’t approached in August when the Garner and County Administrator promised the PILOT fee would be removed.
“I don't really understand yet how they came to the conclusion that they did,” sad Tom Groneman, the BPU president.
Still Groneman had to explain the situation at a town hall Saturday.
“If we were to all of sudden say, 'Take the PILOT off the bill,' it goes away, now we still need to find that $37 million somewhere,” Groneman said.
It would start impacting their base rates, then the BPU reserves and then they would need to raise rates, Groneman said Saturday.
That’s a six to 12 month process that requires a public hearing and UG oversight.
“It's a checks and balances system, right, that's why it exists,” said Matt Hope, the co-founder of findenergy.com.
His company collects electricity and utility data so it’s easier for consumers to understand.
"The total amount of money that the consumer's paying at the end of the month — that's usually what's on their mind the most, so that's what we focus on," Hope said.
He shared data on the Board of Public Utilities and Kansas City, Kansas, which showed these utility values in comparison to the rest of the state and country.
In his opinion, this PILOT ordeal could just be bureaucracy at work; eliminating a fee on a bill just to see a rate increase.
What that doesn’t explain, however, is how some involved, including BPU board members like Rose Mulvany Henry, are confused.
“I feel like we don't have the level of communication that we need to have back and forth between both elected bodies,” Mulvany Henry said. "And, I wish we could improve that."
—
