SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Water System is back at City Hall with a familiar-looking, multi-year proposal to raise your water rates.
The San Antonio City Council voted 6-5 in mid-June to delay a vote on a set of rate increases that could raise the average residential customer’s bill by roughly $15 to $17 per month by 2029 — an increase of 29.9%.
SAWS has said a rate is mainly needed to support billions of dollars worth of capital expenses, including upgrading wastewater treatment plants, replacing pipes and installing backup generators.
On Wednesday, the council will discuss a revised proposal, which is a similar, delayed version to the one they considered three months ago. Under the new plan, rates could bump an average monthly bill by roughly $13 to $17 by 2030.
Instead of raising rates in July under the initial proposal, residential rates would go up 6.9% in January 2027 and be raised again in 6.5% in 2028, between 4.5% and 7% in 2029, and between 4% and 6.6% in 2030.
The range of rates in the latter two years of increases dips slightly lower than what was presented in June, 4.5% and 4% instead of 5.5% and 5%.
Because of the delay, SAWS Chief Financial Officer Cecilia Velasquez said SAWS has had to shrink its $3.2 billion, five-year capital program to $2.6 billion.
That means dropping about $600 million worth of work, she said, including on eliminating dead-end water mains, constructing new water mains, and coordinating work with other governmental projects.
“But that’s what we had to do to fit into the program,” Velasquez said.
Councilwoman Sukh Kaur (D1) was one of the council members who voted to delay considering the rate increase. She told KSAT on Monday “they do need this money. There is work that needs to be done. There’s not a debate about that.”
“It’s making sure that they understand what we are — what they are asking us to do and ensuring their operations are at the place we expect from a public utility,” she said. “And so for me, it was always less about the issue and more did I see progress and metrics on things that they were coming to us with or were they just saying ‘rubber stamp this,’ and so that was always my concern.”
Councilman Marc Whye (D10) also voted for the delay. Even if the plan isn’t much different than what it was in June, he says residents are still paying less for their water now by virtue of it being delayed.
But he also doesn’t appear ready to vote for an increase.
“I still do not believe we need to be raising water prices for our citizens, flat out. I want to make sure that that’s clear,” he said. “The citizens are paying enough right now. But in the event any proposal that they put forward was to go through, I think the deal will be better for the citizens than it was two months ago.”
The council is only expected to discuss the rate proposal at its Wednesday meeting, but it could come up for a vote at the Oct. 8 meeting.
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