The state senate will soon take a floor vote on a proposal backed by the governor to overhaul the Tennessee Regulatory Authority. The board oversees private rates for utilities like water and gas.
The measure would trim the number of full-time members on the board, and pay the replacement part-timers substantially less. TRA gets funding from fees, so whatever money the overhaul saves wouldn’t go back to the state’s main budget.
Instead, Herbert Slatery, the governor’s legal counsel, says those dollars would go to TRA’s reserves.
“Which hopefully would at some point maybe it would reduce fees which are passed on to the consumer, and the consumer would have a smaller charge on their bill. But it’s a more efficient way of delivering those services, and that’s what the governor’s trying to do.”
Officials say the board’s case load is far smaller than a few years ago, partly because of deregulation.
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