City of Tallahassee,Tallahassee Democrat, Misleads Citizens on Electric Rates

City of Tallahassee,Tallahassee Democrat, Misleads Citizens on Electric Rates

The agenda item scheduled to be presented to the Tallahassee City Commission on Wednesday reads “Adoption of the revised method for the CPI increases effective October 1, 2016 will result in a 0.9% increase in electric base rates, natural gas base rates, and water and sewer rates.”

However, the Tallahassee Democrat published a headline on Monday that read “Tallahassee Lowering Electric, Natural Gas Rates.”


What is going on? Why is the Tallahassee Democrat not reporting the increase?

It appears the City of Tallahassee has found a willing partner, the Tallahassee Democrat, in conspiring to mislead their utility customers.

It is clear that electric, gas and water and sewer rates are going up after October 1, 2016. The increase in rates are used to pay for budgeted items, such as labor costs which includes salaries, benefits, and raises.

However, the City of Tallahassee evidently convinced the Tallahassee Democrat to hide the scheduled increase in rates while reporting on a decrease in fuel costs. The City of Tallahassee has no control over fuel costs.

This lack of transparency is also evident in the way the City of Tallahassee bills electricity. Customer utility bills do not show the electric rates and fuel costs separately. Therefore, an increase in rates will not show up when fuel costs goes down. This is how the City of Tallahassee has hid approximately 15% in automatic rate increases over the last ten years.

Is the Tallahassee Democrat lack of reporting on the rate increase due to an inexperienced reporter or a conscious effort to conceal facts? You be the judge.

16 Responses to "City of Tallahassee,Tallahassee Democrat, Misleads Citizens on Electric Rates"

  1. Calling the Tallahassee Democrat a “newspaper” is an insult to the term in it’s intended journalistic definition.
    The Democrat is a far-leftist, pro-government (unless that government is largely composed of Conservatives) information-manipulation publication, attempting to serve the same function as the national “mainstream media” misinformation industry.
    The Democrat serves no valid journalistic purpose since it long ago abandoned any pretense of practicing the profession in its true form.

    My only question is how it’s managed to publish as long as it has – I don’t know anyone who subscribes to it or buys a copy with any regularity. The prop-up money must come from the Gannett company and hopefully they’ll cease wasting it in Tallahassee soon.

  2. And again I am not surprised. I am a COT electric service customer who lives in the county and my house receives power from Talquin lines. Because of an “agreement” ( a rule change drafted into law in the mid 90’s) I get to pay COT for electric service even though they have nothing to say when I call about service outages except, “you’re on Talquin lines, we can’t help you.”

    As a municipality that does not have to worry about competition, because they can legislate competitors out of existence, COT utilities doesn’t concern itself with providing the best service with competitive rates. Every couple of years I do a cost comparison with one of my neighbors who is billed by Talquin, and in nearly 20 years I have NEVER paid less then them per KWhr. Some years the difference has been dang near 50% more per KWhr.

    Please give us a real choice; let those of us who live connected to Talquin lines choose Talquin as our billing entity instead of COT.

  3. Of course there are going to be increases…a hurricane just came through and now we get to pay for all of the damages and labor involved in the clean up.

  4. Just heard about the rate “Decrease” on a RADIO AD, not 30 minutes ago(local) 2% decrease because of lowering fuel prices. !!!!

  5. So how did the city/Tally Dem arrive at “customers will see a 2.3 percent drop in electric costs and a 2.5 percent decrease in natural gas expenses.” Their article offers no explanation for that conclusion.

  6. Only questions here are who prompted the reporter to write (spin) the story?

    D)All of the above

    Was it via?

    A Press release
    C)Hand delivery
    D)All of the above

    It is unconscionable that our local newspaper, The Tallahassee Democrat, feeds the PR spinners and accommodates them at every turn. This is the culture that has evolved and must be corrected.

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