LES details proposed 3.7% rate increase in 2024 budget

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – The Lincoln Electric System proposed its 2024 budget of $362 million dollars last month.

The budget will be voted on by the Lincoln City Council on Nov. 20.

If the proposal passes, Lincoln residents could be paying up to $4 more a month on their electric bill beginning Jan. 1.

The proposal will take into consideration factors such as employee retention investments and net power costs.

“Those employees are in high demand right now, and we have wanted to make sure that we continue to provide good service to our customers,” said Lisa Hale, vice president of customer service at LES.

Hale said the company worked to cut other costs in the budget to keep the rate increase as low as possible for customers.

Due to the cuts, $11.1 million was removed from the original proposed budget.

LES works to factor all financial metrics into its budget and emphasizes that other costs will go up if they don’t make adjustments.

“If we don’t maintain that, then ultimately our costs go up for our borrowing for infrastructure costs and those kinds of things,” said Hale.