Colorado Springs Utilties Rate Increases

As a senior citizen it is difficult to pay my bills

As a dual income home with a disabled veteran husband, we still cannot keep up with bills let alone the exponentially increasing utility prices. The prices already increased this year, not to mention the "peak hours" issue, and now you want to increase prices again? Why, so your CEO can have his new raise? The peak hours were supposed to decrease my bill, but it has exponentially increased dispite us not doing ANYTHING during peak hours. Non profit my ass. Make it make sense. Its give fraudulent con artists stealing from the hard working people of COS, when it should be giving back to the people who sacrificed and fought for our country. Instead youre making it impossible to live.

Even when we are mindful of peak hours and also barely doing anything. Our bill is still 200 dollars more than normal ranging from 400-600. We are disabled veterans and my wife has to basically do everything for me. This has placed a burden on what appointments I can go to because of gas and what meals we can have.

I am a nurse that works full time and a single mom. My bill has doubled and put me in a position of choosing between my utilities and medication and food. I can’t afford my bill even though we’ve done what we can do conserve energy. My lights will be off any day now.

This is horrific every winter I end up on a payment arrangement because my electric only costs me well over three hundred a month. Usually its paid off mid summer when my bills are a hundred or less. Last two months I have been running 220. I am scared I may be in the dark by Thanksgiving.

It is getting ridiculous for these prices. It's 95 outside and a lot of people have to go with out AC or choose to have heat strokes. This is unfair and we want peak hours gone. People are choosing to be hot and drenchedin sweat rather than pay your outrageous prices ..... You are killing everything. not to mention people who need oxygen to live and can't use it during peak hours you don't realize how much harm your doing then good.

I am a single income person and my utilities last year were $49. Just a week ago I paid $250. I can’t afford rent, car insurance, medication, phone, utilities. I’m making cuts and choices that make me feel helpless

My wife and I make good money and we are double income no kids. Our monthly bill went up from an average of 250 to 300 up to a consistent 480 to 550+. although we can sustain a living, I signed this petition because it is absolutely absurd to think that everyone is in a situation such as I am. The other comments on this wall explain it well enough that people on fixed incomes and people with children fighting for every meal that gets put on the table cannot handle this nonsense put on by our municipal utility company. My independent increase in my bill is unexplainable, it is showing an increase in kilowatt hours used when I have been extremely conscious about peak hours and about not using my AC if I can bear the temperature, which is not the case for the past five years I’ve lived in this home. Colorado Springs Utilities needs to answer the people on why this is happening, and they need to answer before we get any new infrastructure in our city, such as data centers or the Coca Cola bottling factory

So many people are needing to now make a choice between food and utilities or should never be that way. All these officials talk about making our community better the problem is, it’s not viable anymore for ppl to live here. Most definitely the ceo didn’t need a raise in his income.

Every person who lives in my home was gone for almost the entire month of June, and my bill was just under $500. I got an alert via email that we had a potential leak. I had a friend go check every toilet, sink, and inch of my home. Nothing was wrong. Nothing was running. The water meter was not moving. I called CSU when I got the alert and the rep on the phone said it was sent in error because there was a change in usage. When I got my bill I called again and was told I was given false information and the bill stood. I was blown off when I asked if there was a possibility something was reported incorrectly on their end. I have read similar stories from others. I suspect fraud is happening, as we have no choice in our utility company in this town.

I think what pisses me off the most, and what should piss others off as well, is the fact that the CEO of Colorado Springs Utilities doesn’t even live in Colorado Springs, he lives in Woodland Park, so the rate increases DO NOT affect him and his family.

Lets just make a petition to recall Travas Deal, rhe peak time inflation, and lower our bills. Thousands will sign Then we do the mayor and shitry council.

We the people need to stand up for what we believe is corruption!

We expected an increase with peak hours, but even with avoiding all appliances during peak, turning off a/c etc, we were still up $130 from our normal rate. I am a small business owner and have small kids. I can’t just eat a $1000+ increase over the course of the next year. It’s crazy! I’ve heard worse horror stories from people in apartments.

Rather than trying to help low income families or families that can't afford to live, they'd rather screw over said families. And everyone else. All they care about is their fat pockets, as if they weren't fat enough already. They preach caring for their communities but don't practice it.

I just paid off my payment plan from last years prices and that average bill with the payment plan was $650. This is my first month of what was supposedly a regular bill and it’s $748!!! How?!? I take care of my elderly father, my husband just had surgery, I also have my kids here with my grandchildren that are toddlers. They can’t afford to live on their own but I’m not gonna be able to afford to keep everyone in my home either. I have to choose between eating and sending CSU money.

My bill went up 103% last month! I was out of town for over 2 weeks! This is impossible! This needs to be investigated! And while we’re on the subject of CSU and the huge pay raise, i implore you to do a deep investigation into the data center backroom deal. This is all shady. Greed is clouding leadership and threatening our beautiful home.

These increases are CRIMINAL! We’ve been trying to keep the AC off, not running ANYTHING ELSE during the day at all. We do laundry off site at a laundromat, only run the dishwasher at night and somehow our bill has gone up $250!!! This shit ass CEO needs a reality check. Cranking up all these prices he doesn’t even have to live under its disgusting behavior. Time for a new CEO.

Non Greedy Matriarchy Needed ASAP

Our June bill went up tremendously, mostly from watering more than we should have. We cut back, but that still didn't stop our July bill from going up over $100. City Council's job is to represent the people and the city to the best of their abilities, to include utilities. Problem is, they don't listen to the people and do whatever they want, to include increasing rates every 3-4 months. And this is after the people were told getting rid of the coal plant would lower rates. Now with this large increase in salary for CSU CEO, I do believe an independent audit is warranted.

It pisses me off when they talk about the summer heat!! Their peak hour rate increased during times when we didn’t use our heater or AC and our bill still increased 100%! Like I said they know their customers come home at the start of their rate increase!! They knew exactly how much money this would bring in!! THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT ANYTHING BUT LINING THEIR OWN POCKETS!!! What are we supposed to do?? Not fix dinner, not take showers, not have clean clothes and spend time together using only CANDLES as a light source!!!?!? Did they think we would not notice??!!?

My utility bills went up almost 100% in just a few months. With a family of 5 and two working parents who are usually at work and kids usually at school over $300 for utilities on peak hour because it's the only time we are home to use anything.

It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to keep our power on every month consistently due to the fluctuations in rates. Our bill has skyrocketed to a nearly unaffordable point. This monopoly they have over the city is an injustice and our community deserves to go to bed knowing they can afford the electric bill tomorrow.

Having to choose bills over food for my household is just a struggle. Thank God we were able to use leap earlier this year, but im still on a payment plan and never going to catch up this way.

As a family we are finding it difficult with the increases of our utilities. We have had multiple increases including the peak hours increase so it seems like we are getting double increases for the same usage we have always had. We have also adjusted our family routines to not use during peak hours but have had at least a $100 - $200 increase in our monthly bills. If it is true that the ceo who got a raise doesn’t even live in our community and caused the increase, then i definitely feel as though these “increases” are not warranted. We have already had issues with meter readings not matching the billing and had a log of all meter readings in previous years. We should not have to monitor our meters to ensure the correct readings are being billed. We already are making changes to routines and it’s absurd that we are all having to do this to justify a petition in the first place. That’s why I am signing this petition.

It’s concerning to hear from people, their stories about having family with a disability who rely on utilities to keep their machines running. Yet you do not have ANY type of exceptions for them…

I want to also take away the fees in the breakdown. They are outrageous for access fees and charges.

My bill went from around $300 to over $500. Increasing the billing rate during the time families are home, doing homework, cooking dinner makes no sense at all. Especially to pay the CEO as much as he's making is WILD.

I am a HVAC Technician. I have worked my trade all over the country. CO Springs Utilities say the bill is up due to AC’s running more than normal. Go to Dallas. Go to Little Rock. Go to OKC. The heat in those places is outrageous. Your AC literally doesn’t stop running. For CO Springs utilities to say it’s been a “hot” summer is not wrong in the context of past summers in CO. But it is certainly not the reason why my electric bill has had in increase in $200 in two months. It’s a scapegoat and everyone knows it. Pretty sad when the CEO salary is ~750k. And the city council who is supposed to be a voice for the working man is far from it. They don’t know what it’s like to have to sell personal possessions, loose hobbies, or not have time to see loved ones because you are begging your boss for extra hours. I don’t make minimum wage and I don’t have social security pay checks. I don’t know how people who are, are surviving. My family is hurting, but I can only imagine how people in those demographics is doing. Red, blue, or anything in between doesn’t matter. Just a different side of the same coin. An Audit needs to 100% be done to see where this money is going that we pay every month (we all know who’s pockets it goes in). Thanks for reading my Ted Talk and hang in there working man. Things will turn around soon enough.

On top of the ridiculous rates, they do not offer help or reduced prices for those on life-saving machines. I know a family with a toddler on lots of machines that are struggling to feed their family now just to keep their son alive. So many people here, especially with the altitude, have to be on oxygen machines 24/7. This affects every individual in some way and we are just being thrown away instead of listened to.

The peak hours affect working families the most. When we get home from work, we throw the laundry in, start cooking dinner, and use the air conditioner so that we can live comfortably in our home. It behooves us all to vote for politicians who prioritize affordable energy for families instead of their green agenda. It’s disgusting what the state legislature majority and Polis have done to our PUC.

My bill as gradually gone up to where it’s more than $100 from what it was

Let’s also add, that the Colorado Springs utility board unanimously voted for the CEO Travas Deal to have a $150,000 pay raise, RIGHT AFTER WE GOT OUR NOTICE FOR DOUBKE CHARGES PEAK HOURS… coincidence?

I am signing this petition because affordable utilities are not a luxury—they are a basic necessity. As a Colorado Springs homeowner, working mother, and veteran, I understand that maintaining and improving our city’s infrastructure costs money, and I recognize that reasonable rate adjustments may sometimes be necessary. However, when residents are experiencing significant increases in their utility bills, we deserve transparency and accountability regarding how those rates are determined and how our money is being spent. I work hard to provide stability for my family, and I am fortunate to have a steady career. But if families with stable incomes are noticing these increases and having to adjust their household budgets, I am deeply concerned about our seniors, disabled veterans, single-income households, and families who are already living paycheck to paycheck. An independent audit is not an unreasonable request. It is responsible oversight. Colorado Springs Utilities serves this community, and the community deserves to understand where its money is going, why these increases are necessary, and whether every reasonable effort has been made to control costs before asking residents to pay more. Colorado Springs is our home. I want it to remain a place where working families can actually afford to live, raise their children, and build a future. That is why this matters to me, and that is why I am signing.

I noticed that colorado springs city council are also the CSU board and hold there utilities in the early afternoon when a majority of people are at work. Is there a way we can get that changed so the people can attend these meetings and have there say, because right now they can pass anything they want pertaining to the utilities and because there can be only one company it feels like a monopoly and that were forced to n pay what ever they want.

Bill was $350, now $800 last month

We hardly use anything all hours of the day peak or not. Even less now since peak started, at 1st it didn't go up, we thought we would be okay if we kept it up because we are use to being this way to begin with. Well now we are seeing a huge hike out of no where. We don't have AC... I do our dishes and laundry meal cooking and preps durning the morning and the early afternoons. I can go on and on... but I think I have made my point. It's very upsetting to here. People try to explain to the consumer's what they can do to make changes, assuming people aren't severely cutting back already. It seems like there might be more involved then meets the eye and should be investigated. This is all just wrong... I having a hard time with employment right now because of my daughter's medical conditions and getting her on disability has been next to impossible.. my husband works 14 to 15 hour days to support us and our 3 kids... I know there are plenty of people out there that have it worse so I am not trying to complain... but we are living in some EXTREMELY tough times right now and seeing / hearing how hard people trying their best and still severely struggling just breaks my heart. Please be kind to one another, as you never know what the person next to you is going through.

As a senior citizen, my money can't be stretched any further. I have taken on extra work, but it seems the harder I work, the further behind I get. I can't make enough to keep up with the increase in the cost of utilities, groceries, rent/mortgage payments, and insurance. I don't know what many other seniors or I are going to do.

City Council is now a Government by itself for itself and needs oversight from State and Federal investigation. Demand change!

I've been a colorado springs resident for three years, and it's already gotten expensive enough and difficult enough to make it by on bills and now the greed of Co Springs Utilities has made it infinitely harder for the residents to make their bills. My bill has doubled since the peak rates and that's with me and my partner in our small 1bd apartment being very mindful of them and doung our best to minimize use during them. Which we shouldn't even have to do! How does a bill go from less than $100 to almost $200 with no increase in usage. It's greed, and corruption and change needs to be done. We can't keep letting these greedy CEO'S and companies bleed us dry for their own greed and to increase their own comfort and wealth at our expense. This is ridiculous.

Outrageous, and unfair especially for those on fixed incomes. And people aren't stupid ! it's a very sneaky way for Colorado Springs getting the people used to paying these rates, but people those rates may be their plan to get the people to pay for those data center farms, that the people don't want.

The cost of living keeps going up but the wages don't it'll get to a point where all the people like me who is a single income home where I take care of 2 dependents and all the bills can't provide the necessities for her family to live. The CEO gets $150,000 raise and the working class has to pay for it screw that.

Bill is beyond affordable On a limited budget, how does one catch up Bill is more than double in the past year