Dozens Protest Trinidad Hearing as Council Approves 4% Electric Increase

Dozens of Trinidad residents packed the municipal hearing in mid‑February and voiced concerns about higher electric bills as the City Council voted to approve motions for the ordinances as written, including a 4% increase for power and light for both commercial and residential customers. Council action followed public comment at the regular meeting and public hearing that drew repeated warnings about household and business impacts.

The increase followed a Jan. 12 work session in which council members sketched out likely changes and reached consensus to advance amendments to a Feb. 17 public hearing. At that Jan. 12 session the council discussed reducing the commercial electric increase to 4%, maintaining water at 5%, sewer at 7% and raising gas rates by 5% to offset declining consumption; landfill fees remained under review with some members suggesting a flat dollar increase instead of a percentage adjustment. Council also agreed to pair a State of the City address with a State of the County presentation in a joint “State of the Community” event later this month at Space to Create.

Council debate during the work session and hearing returned “again and again to a familiar tension: how to keep the city financially stable while staying connected to those footing the bill.” Council member Aaron Williamson warned of infrastructure risk in the Jan. 12 discussion: “If you don’t do something about this, you’re kicking the can down the road,” and added, “The next time you’re kicking a bucket down the road. At some point, it becomes an anchor, and that’s when you become a city with a nonfunctional electric grid.” Council member Dan Ruscetti voiced the affordability side of the debate, saying, “You raise these rates, you’re going to put more people out of business and people aren’t going to afford their utilities.”

Residents who spoke at the mid‑February hearing told council members they were worried about “the concrete impacts of higher electric” costs, and multiple attendees urged alternatives and relief measures; the public record released after the meeting did not include a roll‑call tally in the version reviewed by this reporter. The council’s action approving the ordinances as written explicitly included the 4% power and light increase for commercial and residential accounts, while the final status of water, sewer, gas and landfill adjustments requires review of the full adopted ordinance text and meeting minutes.

For regional context, national developments in Trinidad and Tobago are running separate and distinct: Movement for Social Justice political leader David Abdulah led a protest outside the Ministry of Public Utilities in Port‑of‑Spain and said his group is “re‑launching a national petition against the T&TEC rating increase,” adding, “We want to bring back into the public’s mind that we are saying no to a rate increase” and arguing the country could “save the 250 million dollars a year as a result of the power purchase agreements that T&TEC has with Powergen and with Trinidad Generation Limited and with Trinity Power.” A separate national report cited a cabinet briefing in which public utilities minister Barry Padarath said cabinet rejected Regulated Industries Commission recommendations to increase electricity and water rates for the 2023–2027 period; those national actions concern the country of Trinidad and Tobago and do not change municipal decisions taken in Trinidad, Colorado.

The council’s next public engagement tied to this budget discussion is the State of the Community event at Space to Create later this month, where city officials plan to present a joint State of the City and State of the County. City residents seeking specifics should review the city’s final ordinance text and meeting minutes for the Feb. 17 hearing to confirm effective dates, vote tallies and any mitigation measures for low‑income households and small businesses; council members Aaron Williamson and Dan Ruscetti were central voices in the debate and are available for follow‑up on their positions.