A slim majority of San Antonio’s City Council elected to table discussion on a series of San Antonio Water System (SAWS) rate increases that could raise an average residential customer’s monthly bill by roughly $15 to $17 over the next two-and-a-half years.

SAWS Rate Hike Proposal

The water utility is looking to raise additional revenue, in large part, for billions of dollars’ worth of capital expenses, including upgrading wastewater treatment plants, replacing pipes, and installing backup generators. SAWS is owned by the City of San Antonio, though, and it’s the City Council that must approve the rates.

SAWS CEO Robert Puente has previously said that if the rate increase isn’t approved, the utility would be back in the fall to ask again. The proposal the council will now discuss this fall includes set rate increases to residential bills of 6.9% this year and 6.5% in 2027. However, the subsequent increases could vary in size — between 5.5% and 7% in 2028 and between 5% and 6.6% for 2029.

This would lead to an average residential customer’s bill increasing from roughly $56.68 before fees to somewhere between $71.48 and $73.61 — an increase of 26.1% to 29.9%. The extra $14.80 to $16.93 per bill works out to an extra $178 to $203 per year.

Original reporting: San Antonio, TX News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.