Pumpkin patch kid

State regulation comes with a price – more than $21 million a year.

Where the money comes from may surprise most taxpayers but disappoint the utilities’ ratepayers:

• Regulating public utilities such as Dominion Energy and Blue Granite Water costs taxpayers nothing.

Public Service Commission and Office of Regulatory Staff costs are covered by fees paid by the utilities.

• As operating costs, the utilities pass along these costs in customer rates, according to Comptroller Richard Eckstrom’s office.

The Public Service Commission costs ratepayers $5.6 million a year. $985,000 of that is in such operating expenses as rent, lights, water and phones.

The other $4.6 million pays for salaries, bonuses and benefits including:

• A $131,393 salary for Chairman Randy Randall.

• $129,449 each for the 6 other commissioners including Florence Belzer representing Lexington County.

• $129,646 for Executive Director Jocelyn Boyd.

The other regulatory arm, the Office of Regulatory Staff, operates on ratepayer paid fees not taxes.

ORS operating costs total $15,466,839 a year.

Executive Director Nanette Edwards receives $178,619 a year, according to her office.

ORS does research for the PSC and oversees many other utilities including phone companies and others.

Some of its costs are paid by grants including a $1,873,146 federal grant.

Small Business Chamber CEO Frank Knapp said, “The cost of regulation is spread over a lot of services across the state. The better question is how do the costs compare to other states?”

Jim Clarkson, an energy consultant, said, “The biggest cost is not the regulatory overhead. It is the lack of competition and the rewarding of capital projects.”

Tom Clements, an intervenor in the nuclear rate cases, said, “The worst part of these charges to Dominion customers is that they don’t even get what they paid for – proper, unbiased regulation of the utility.”

Opinion: It’s time to end regulated monopolies, A11