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From this morning's SNL:Delay on vote on gas rate increase hits a snag
Wes Johnson • News-Leader • September 24, 2008

Plans to delay a vote on a proposed natural gas rate increase request until Oct. 13 ran into a snag late Tuesday.

During the Springfield City Council's lunch meeting, Mayor Tom Carlson suggested delaying the vote because two council members -- John Wylie and Cindy Rushefsky -- could not attend Monday's regular council meeting.

The council had planned to vote on City Utility's 2009 budget and its natural gas rate increase request at the Monday meeting.

Carlson said Wylie and Rushefsky wanted to speak about the gas rate hike, and agreed to postpone the vote. However, a News-Leader reporter noted that CU's 2009 budget included the proposed natural gas rate increase.

How could the council vote on the budget Monday and delay its vote on the gas rate hike until two weeks later?

Carlson passed the question on to City Attorney Dan Wichmer.

Late Tuesday, Wichmer said he still needed to speak with CU officials and would likely have an answer before noon today.

Does this mean the City Council is going to approve CU's 2009 budget before it approves the rate increase which is in the 2009 budget? Why did CU include the rate increase in their budget before the City Council approved it? Life of Jason posted this last week.