Why Texas Electric and Insurance Bills Keep Getting Higher

My wife and I recently had one of those conversations I suspect a lot of Texas families are having around the kitchen table.

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Our electric bills are exceeding $800 a month. Between homeowners and automobile insurance, we're paying more than another $800 every month. Then there's gasoline. What we're spending just to drive back and forth to work has climbed dramatically over the past 18 months.

My wife finally said, "We're going to have to watch every single penny we spend."

That's when it hit me. We're working to pay the electric bill, insurance, and gasoline we need so we can go to work and earn enough money to pay the electric bill, insurance, and gasoline.

Something isn't right.

Why Are Texas Household Bills Getting So High?

I started looking for answers and found recent reports from Houston Public Media and Texas Scorecard addressing some of the same expenses my wife and I have been discussing.

Gov. Greg Abbott has acknowledged that Texans are dealing with high homeowners and automobile insurance costs. His affordability proposals include a roof-fortification program intended to reduce storm damage and potentially lower homeowners insurance premiums.

Texas weather certainly plays a role. Hail, wind, hurricanes, tornadoes and severe storms can cause tremendous property losses, and those risks help influence what homeowners pay for coverage.

What About Our Texas Electric Bills?

This is the part that really caught my attention.

Abbott has directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas and ERCOT to work toward preventing residential customers from being stuck with infrastructure costs associated with Texas' rapidly expanding data-center industry.

The goal is for large data centers to shoulder their own electric infrastructure costs instead of passing those expenses along to residential customers. State officials have also been examining transmission costs and how very large users connect to the Texas electric grid.

That doesn't mean our electric bills are suddenly going to drop next month. However, it does mean state regulators are examining who should pay for the enormous amount of infrastructure required to support these facilities.

Texas can welcome technology, jobs and investment, but families shouldn't be expected to unnecessarily shoulder the cost of that growth.

What Can Texas Families Do Right Now?

When it comes to insurance, Texans can shop around, compare companies, ask about every available discount and review deductibles to determine whether another option makes financial sense.

Depending on where you live, you may also be able to compare electricity plans, examine fees and carefully monitor household energy use.

None of those things magically fixes an $800 electric bill, but when a family budget is stretched, every dollar matters.

As a Dad, This Is What Scares Me

Maybe this hits me harder because I'm a dad.

I find myself calling my kids and asking, "Do you have enough money for groceries? Do you have enough gas? Are your bills paid?"

They're young adults starting their lives. If two people working full-time are looking at the household budget wondering where else they can cut, what does that mean for young Texans just getting started?

For my family, this isn't about politics. It's the electric bill sitting on the kitchen table.

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