💧 WATER RATE UPDATE — HERE'S WHERE THINGS STAND
I've been following the water-rate discussions, and after the August 12 work session, we finally have a clearer picture of what residents may actually be looking at.
First — the rates have NOT been formally approved yet.
And the proposal has changed quite a bit from what we were looking at earlier this summer.
Remember the proposal to cut the amount of water included in the residential base rate from 400 cubic feet down to 200?
That appears to be off the table.
The City acknowledged that dropping it to 200 could hit families especially hard, so the proposal they're moving forward with keeps the 400 cubic feet included in the residential base rate.
So what are we looking at now?
The residential water base rate would go up about 6%, and once you use more than the included amount, the rate gradually increases as your water use goes up.
Here's what the City's examples look like:
💧 400 cf: about $1.85 more per month
💧 600 cf: about $2.86 more per month
💧 1,100 cf: about $6.84 more per month
About 73% of residential bills are at or below 400 cf, according to the usage information presented at the meeting.
That's a BIG change from the earlier proposal.
Under the June proposal, a household using around 600 cf was looking at roughly a 23% increase in the water portion of the bill. Under this proposal, the City's example is closer to 7%.
There's also something I think residents really need to know about the new tiers.
If you barely go over a tier, you don't suddenly get charged the higher rate for all of your water.
If you use 510 cf, for example, only the portion that falls into that higher tier gets charged at that rate.
Sewer is part of this discussion too.
The sewer base rate is also proposed to increase about 6%, with additional increases depending on usage.
And no — 6% water + 6% sewer does not mean your total utility bill automatically goes up 12%. They're separate portions of the same bill. Your actual increase depends on your usage.
Another big change involves short-term rentals.
The proposal would treat STRs more like commercial accounts instead of giving them the same residential water allowance. The City's examples showed increases of roughly $11–$23 per month depending on how much water the STR uses.
Now for the bigger question I've had:
Why do the rates need to go up?
One thing that really stood out to me during the work session was the discussion about past capital spending and deferred maintenance.
City Finance said they simply haven't been doing the amount of capital work the water and sewer systems need. The thinking now is to collect enough through rates to actually maintain the systems and fund ongoing capital work instead of continuing to push projects down the road.
That's something I'm going to keep digging into, because residents deserve to understand what we're paying for, not just what percentage our bill is going up.
And finally — there was NOT a formal vote on the rates August 12.
It was a work session. Council gave staff direction to clean up the proposal, get more information out to the public and bring it back for formal consideration, likely at a Council meeting in September.
So for now:
👉 400 cf stays in the residential base.
👉 About a 6% base increase is being proposed.
👉 Higher water use = progressively higher charges.
👉 STRs would be treated differently.
👉 Sewer rates are changing too.
👉 Nothing has been formally adopted yet.
This is exactly why I keep saying we need to follow these discussions before the vote happens, not after.
YOUR VOICE MATTERS!!
I'll keep following it and put the information out as we get it. 💧
