CU budget projects planned expenditures at $895M

The Board of Public Utilities, which governs City Utilities of Springfield, passed the utility provider's next budget.

The Aug. 22 approval by the board sends the fiscal 2025 budget measure to Springfield City Council for a first reading on Sept. 9, with a vote to follow on Sept. 23, according to a news release. The budget proposal is available on CU's website.

Disbursement authority – defined in budget documents as the total amount of planned expenditures – is set at $895.4 million in the budget passed by the board. That's up from a reprojected fiscal 2024 figure of $709.5 million. Disbursement authority was approved at roughly $698 million when the CU board passed the budget in August 2023, according to past reporting.

The disbursement authority includes $200 million for future power supply contingency. There is no such contingency in the current budget.

"The FY 2025 operating budget focuses on continuing the replacement of aging infrastructure to provide reliability and safety to each system, while maintaining affordability," CU officials said in the release. "The budget includes fuels, capital projects and noncapital operational expenses."

Council also is slated to receive a proposal for natural gas rate adjustments and a request to decrease transit fares.

If approved, natural gas rate increases would start with a 2.5% adjustment on Oct. 1, 2025, followed by 3.9% increases in October 2026 and 2027, according to the release. The transit fare decrease would amount to a 20% reduction in fares.

“The reliability and integrity of each service we provide is funded separately, and as with other businesses, we have seen supply chain and inflationary issues impact every area of the utility,” CU President and CEO Gary Gibson said in the release. “It’s necessary that we seek these adjustments to continue providing exceptional services and reliability to our community.”

CU’s new fiscal year starts Oct. 1.