Progress Energy, which sells electricity to UF, has requested a decrease in electric rates that could soften UF's budget cut by between $2 million and $3 million, according to Matt Fajack, UF's chief financial officer.
The request must still be approved by Florida's Public Service Commission. It would go into effect for the April billing cycle.Tim Leljedal, a spokesman for Progress Energy, said the company requested the rate cuts because fuel prices have come down and because it decided to postpone some charges for a nuclear power plant being built in Levy County.
The proposed rate decrease follows a few other decreases in UF's original utilities projections for the current fiscal year.
UF factored in about $10 million for increases in its utility bills into the potential $72 million to $75 million budget cut that UF President Bernie Machen announced in January, Fajack said.
With the proposed rate decrease and other developments, the size of that cut is now expected to be about $5.5 million, he said.
The increases in utilities would normally be paid by the state, which pays utilities for UF's educational buildings.
This year, the state didn't pick up the tab for the extra costs.
And it may not shell out the money next fiscal year either, so UF is still factoring about $11 million for next year's increases into the potential budget cut, Fajack said.
