...Street Lighting: Street lighting is a public good provided by local governments for the safety and well-being of residents. The expense for this tends to represent an important part of a municipality's current expense (CE), and in some cases it presents a volatile and significant annual growth derived from urbanization. Structurally, most Fitch-rated municipalities present a high amount of CE in relation to their ordinary fiscal revenues (OFR) or current revenues, which highlights the need for saving scarce resources in the operation and provision of public services. High Electricity Costs: Given the electricity sector's tariff structure, the rate applied to the street lighting service is the second highest, exceeding the industrial rate. Fitch Ratings considers electricity consumption costs a factor that annually pressures local governments' finances, because administrations do not have absolute control over this budgetary item. Therefore, some municipal governments streamline providing...
