By Reagan Priest | Arizona Capitol Times
Key Points:
- Rep. Teresa Martinez wants the Residential Utility Consumer Office to reprioritize
- RUCO declined to intervene in a rural water rate case at the Arizona Corporation Commission
- Martinez says the agency needs to focus on small utility customers, not large ones like Arizona Public Service
A Republican lawmaker wants the state agency tasked with advocating for residential utility customers to reprioritize after it declined to assist the customers of a rural water utility.
Rep. Teresa Martinez, R-Casa Grande, introduced House Bill 2113 to require the Residential Utility Consumer Office to intervene in rate cases at the Arizona Corporation Commission if a utility company attempts to increase rates by 100% or more. Martinez’s bill comes after RUCO was unable to intervene in the Picacho Water and Sewer Company rate case, which originally proposed a 125% increase in water rates and a 188% increase in sewer rates.
Martinez sent a letter to RUCO Director Cynthia Zwick in September regarding the rate case, after hearing from constituents that the agency had declined to intervene. Since then, Zwick said she has met with Martinez to discuss RUCO’s caseload and resource constraints, but Martinez still believes the agency should refocus its efforts.
“RUCO is prioritizing the number of people rather than the amount of the proposed rate hike, leaving rural Arizona behind,” Martinez said in a statement. “Instead of fighting for the little guy facing 200 or 300 percent rate hikes, RUCO is concentrating its attention on larger population centers where proposed increases average around 15-20 percent. This is a fairness issue.”
