By BARBARA GREEN
bnews@sbcglobal.net
The number one complaint in the City of Bowie is its high electric rates.
Mayor Larry Slack addressed that topic in last week’s town hall meeting, explaining some ways the city staff is exploring to help reduce and make the system more efficient.
He opened with a comparison between area cities that operate electric utilities and, as expected, Bowie was in the higher range. Of eight cities surveyed in their overall utility and tax bills per month, Bowie was at number five with a total of $207.63.
Whitesboro was the lowest at $177.40 and Farmersville the highest at $223.78. Granbury was sixth highest with Sanger seventh.
In electric cost alone Bowie was at the highest point at $102.52, but fell to number four in taxes and water/sewer costs. Bowie has one of the lower taxes rates in the area at .4945 cents per $100 in property value for 2015.
Nocona’s rate is .54 cents, Decatur .703; Iowa Park, .76; Archer City, .75 and Graham, .60.
Slack said Bowie purchases around 73,500,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year and bills residential and commercial customers 68,500,000 kWh.
Electrical revenue is the largest contributor to the city budget at $9,354,325. Water revenue is $1,864,000 and wastewater at $994,360; however, both have debt service and usually barely break even or fall into the red.
Charges for services brings in $2,652,553. It includes things like ambulance fees, garbage collection fees, contract service, code enforcement pool and similar items.
Ad valorem tax revenue is $1,244,706 and sales tax at $1,459,299.
Bowie’s current contract for power is with Bryan Texas Utilities. The 30-year term contract began in 2008 with a five-year option to terminate.
Read the full story in the Sept. 23 edition of The Bowie News.