You misunderstand.

The street lighting and parking lot lighting have always been in the maintenance budget, which you pay with your property taxes at the end of the year.

What's new is that the rate is increasing substantially.

SECO Energy Announces Increase in Lighting Rates – SECO Energy

What is happening?

– We need to adjust the way we pay for and maintain area light poles in the communities we serve in order to be more accurate and fair to all our members. As a result, you may see an increase in your HOA dues or maintenance assessment in your municipal tax bill.

Why is this increase happening now?

– During the course of a recent cost of services study, we discovered an imbalance in the costs borne by area lighting customers. SECO members in certain parts of our service area weren’t paying their fair share of the costs associated with area lighting.
– Our team alerted the members affected about these needed changes in May.

How will I be affected?

– You will likely see a change in your community maintenance fee. For the average homeowners this could amount to about $5 per month.

Why can’t it stay the way it is?

– SECO is a member-owned, not-for-profit utility. This means that our customers are all members of the co-op. We have a responsibility to all members to operate the utility as efficiently and fairly as possible.
– It just isn’t fair to all of our members if some communities are effectively subsidized by others, and it’s not good accounting. The new approach means that everybody pays their fair share.

Keeping your highlights, this just has a bad smell to it.

The current rates seem to have been in place since at least 2020 which is the oldest rate tariff document I can find. How could it have taken over four years to find a $15M imbalance? How could t have taken over four years to notice they were charging $0.18 per day for a pole when the right number was actually $1.31, an error of over 625%?

If it isn't fair to cover the costs with residential customers subsidizing public customers (the CDDs in our case) then in October when the costs are shifted the residential customers should see some savings. $15M/240,000 customers would be about $5/month; not much but something. I will be interested in seeing whether that actually happens.

Instead, what I suspect we will see is no savings at all. My cynicism has me expecting to hear that while the costs were shifted to the CDDs, other costs have increase and my rates will remain the same. This happens all too often.

Since it looks like my CDD maintenance budget will have to increase by the same amount as my savings from shifting the cost, this *could* work out to have zero impact on me. On the other hand, if shifting the cost does *not* result in a savings from SECO but the CDD *does* need to increase the maintenance fee then residential customers in my area will be paying an additional $60 when SECO makes things "fair" for us.

So ? Not sure how many basic expenses are not rising ? Not sure what "we the people" can do about it ? Don't think there will be a boycott, that a high percentage of residents in the villages will STOP using electricity to force reductions in charges ? Certainly not worth the true cost of moving, and chances of even finding a state or area where energy costs are DECREASING are close to zero. Not trying to say "just suck it up", but don't have an answer to such circumstances ! Next we'll be hearing insurance rates are going to be driven higher ?

Don't want to drift too far off topic, but "mandatory" lamp posts ? "mandatory" automatic sprinkling systems, etc. ? Prices of UK and Bermuda, interesting, but then doesn't add much when you don't know ALL the other circumstances of life there.... taxes, insurance, food, fuel (gasoline we noticed was much higher in Bermuda, a place we like to spend vacation time), so just saying, not rejecting. We also stopped using electricity for the lamp post, changed to solar, but perhaps (?) it would be logical for ALL developers to just make such things solar from the get go ? Most developers are now advertising "green homes", "energy SAVING homes", etc. Also underground water storage tanks for doing garden and lawn watering "might" be a better idea than a "mandatory" automatic watering system which people must buy but may not even want ? Always questions of individual "rights" .... complicated situations.

Most revealing part of your post: we're NOT ALLOWED to say it here, but you know".
Seems the very same thing as during the great illness, NOT allowed to even state an opinion that differed from the narrative being pushed. Look where that got us. How many of you, like me, wonder what have I done to my own body/health now that the truth has been revealed. Same applies to many situations. There is the accepted narrative and even expressing doubt, or questioning, seems to be rejected. Not healthy for a society to be encouraged to not express thought provoking opinions, that do not expand analytical thinking. We also seem to be moving toward a society that does not permit evolution of thought and changing one's view. More and more it seems those who take in and process information over a period of time, and change their views or judgments, are labeled "traitors", "turncoats", "chameleons", etc. ! An old phrase goes: damned if you do, damned if you don't" ! !