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Tenorio hopes CPUC will do a ‘good’ study on CHCC rates
Janice A. Tenorio
Commonwealth Utilities Corp. board chair Janice A. Tenorio hopes that the Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission will do a “good” study on a Senate bill that would mandate CUC to change the power, water, and wastewater rate of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. from the current government rate to the lower commercial rate.
With CPUC doing the study, Tenorio said they can then help CUC regulate the rates and not pass on these extra rates to ordinary consumers.
“That’s why there is a government rate….to actually not have the consumers [and businesses’] pay the additional costs,” she said in an interview on Monday.
Tenorio said the Senate bill does no favors for CUC because the utilities agency will be losing that source of revenue. If the bill is enacted into a law, it will only be advantageous to the hospital, she said.
“People say that there’s a lot of leaks, that we are [not doing] maintenance. But that’s where the money is. When agencies don’t pay and people don’t pay, then we don’t have the money to conduct the maintenance,” she added.
Tenorio said they have grant money for certain projects, but also need money to do maintenance.
Last June 23, the Senate passed the legislation, Senate Bill 23-37, SD1. It is now with a committee in the House of Representatives.
Tenorio acknowledges that, while the bill will be bad for CUC, it’s also good for CHCC because the hospital owes CUC $59 million and will thus be charged a lower rate.
She also concedes that CHCC has they’ve been complying with the memorandum of agreement it signed with CUC and the hospital corporation is in good standing now.
She believes that, whatever rate structure the CPUC will come up with, the most important thing is that decisions are made based on what’s best for the entire community and as long as it doesn’t pass additional costs to the consumers and businesses.
“I think that’s the goal,” Tenorio said.
