After a couple of delays, the Ann Arbor City Council is expected to vote tonight on a resolution to pay for a study that’s the next step toward creating a municipal utility.
The vote was postponed two weeks ago at the request of vendor NewGen Strategies and Solutions, who had to rectify an issue with a subcontractor. The $1.7 million study is to determine the value of the DTE grid in Ann Arbor and the cost of the city taking it over.
DTE’s Vice President of Corporate and Government Affairs, Andy Coulouris, says they’ve paid for a study of their own.
“We funded a third-party to conduct a study that showed that rates for Ann Arbor residents would increase by 40%. Taking over a municipal utility like this, I think that really sheds a light on the fact that it’s really a cost-prohibitive option for the city.”
Ann Arbor for Public Power isn’t buying DTE’s numbers. They’re rallying tonight at City Hall ahead of tonight’s meeting.
EDIT - A correction was made to note the cost of the study to be $1.7 million instead of $2.7 million.
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