By THOMAS CONTENT

We Energies ratepayers sounded off Wednesday about the utility's 7% price increase planned for 2010, and they also vented about a surcharge for district attorneys that will hit customers' bills in December.

The surcharge, enacted as part of the state budget, is raising fees for a fund that was created to help poor state residents pay their energy bills and weatherize their homes. Under the budget, utility customers are paying $36 million over the next two years, and half of that amount will go to district attorneys' salaries and half will go to the state's Wisconsin Works, or W-2, program.

"What is the sense of being here when part of the next two years' gas and electric bill has been approved by the state Legislature to balance their 2010-'11 budget?" asked Edward C. Mueller of South Milwaukee.

Mueller spoke during a Public Service Commission hearing attended by nearly 100 people at Serb Hall. The hearing wrapped up the public comment phase of the We Energies rate case, which the PSC is expected to decide in December.

In a letter Wednesday, the state District Attorneys Association said that it did not seek the power-bill surcharge and that the surcharge did not result in increased funding for prosecutors because of cuts elsewhere in the state budget.

"It should be clear that this was not a funding source that any district attorney requested," said Ralph Uttke, president of the Wisconsin District Attorneys Association. "On policy grounds, district attorneys oppose funding prosecution efforts with any government revenue source not related to our work."

The We Energies proposal would boost customer bills nearly 7% from current rates. The utility said a typical customer now paying $912 a year for electricity would see an increase of $62 in 2010, and another increase of $45 in 2011.

The utility is proposing to raise rates to fund its power plant construction program as well as higher pension costs and transmission-line costs.

A portion of the increase also would offset declining sales of electricity, primarily by factories, amid the recession.

Several customers testified that the price increase will hit people on fixed incomes who are already hurting during the recession.

"We need a break. Foreclosures are increasing; people are losing their jobs everywhere," said Lea Lewis of Milwaukee. "We cannot afford another increase. We're trying to rob Peter to pay Paul now."

Several suppliers to the utility told the PSC's administrative law judge, Michael Newmark, that We Energies has required them to cut costs because of the recession and take other steps to become more efficient.

InterCon Construction, a contractor that does underground construction work for We Energies, has seen business fall with We Energies because of the recession, and it has responded by cutting salaries and the size of its workforce, said Chris Wozniak, business development manager at InterCon.

"InterCon's utility customers and the rate-paying public have benefited from these moves," Wozniak said.

But Jack Marshall, plant operations manager at PPG Industries, a coatings manufacturer in Oak Creek, said customers need a break from rising rates.

Noting the utility's status as a regulated monopoly, he said, "We compete in the marketplace."

After cutting staff and salaries this year, PPG has proposed a budget for 2010 that is flat and cannot handle a big jump in energy costs. Given the size of the increase it's facing, "we end up with another two or three employees that I'll have to find a way to either eliminate them or come up with cuts somewhere else," Marshall said.

Wednesday's hearing was the second held in Milwaukee. Technical difficulties resulted in people leaving before testifying at a hearing earlier this month.

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