San Antonio Water System’s board of trustees voted unanimously on Tuesday to maneuver ahead with the utility’s first proposed charge hike since 2020 — a transfer that would drive up common family water customers’ month-to-month payments by almost $20 over time.
Even so, the measure nonetheless wants approval from at the very least 5 members of San Antonio Metropolis Council earlier than going into impact. Council is scheduled to vote on the proposed enhance at its June 11 assembly.
Underneath SAWS’ proposal, month-to-month watbils for the common family — or those that eat 6,300 gallons month-to-month whereas producing round 5,000 gallons of wastewater — would steadily enhance over the following 4 years by a complete of $18.51. That’s a $222 annual enhance by 2029.
The proposed charge hike comes after SAWS President and CEO Robert Puente acquired a $132,000 bonus for his 2025 efficiency.
SAWS board members, together with Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, preserve the speed hike is important to cowl the price of sustaining and enhancing the utility’s current infrastructure. To that time, the system misplaced 16.5 billion gallons of water final yr because of defective pipes and leaks.
SAWS plans to make use of the income from the speed enhance to switch 77 miles of water mains, enhance a sewage remedy facility and broaden an aquifer storage-and-recovery operation.
Nonetheless, the rise gained’t be used to finance the relocation of a SAWS chilling plant downtown as a part of the event of the Undertaking Marvel sports activities and leisure district, in accordance with officers with the utility.
No less than 4 council members have expressed skepticism concerning the hike, together with Ric Galvan (District 6), Marina Alderete Gavito (District 7), Misty Spears (District 9) and Marc Whyte (District 10).
“We should not have a income downside right here on the metropolis; we have now a spending downside,” Whyte informed the Present throughout a latest interview. “I’ve been via three finances cycles now, and it’s very clear to me that if we might turn out to be extra environment friendly in how we spend our residents’ tax {dollars}, we might repair extra of our residents’ issues.”
Whyte’s proposal, a part of his broader Speed up SA Imaginative and prescient, would hypothetically reallocate funds from underutilized metropolis applications to subsidize infrastructure tasks.
Even so, Mayor Jones argues the proposed charge hike is essentially the most environment friendly and most cost-effective solution to repair SAWS’s uncared for infrastructure.
“Whereas it is a charge enhance … it’s, in truth, the most cost effective possibility to make sure we have now the amenities we want within the curiosity of public security and public well being,” Jones stated throughout Tuesday’s assembly.
Keep tuned.
Signal Up for SA Present newsletters.
Comply with us: Apple Information | Google Information | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Fb | Twitter | Or join our RSS Feed
Associated Tales
‘I’ll have the Mexican drug cartel plant a bomb in your workplace,’ the person stated in a voicemail, in accordance with authorities.
Pat Wallace is the sixth staffer to go away Jones’ workplace in lower than a yr.
Council members stated they may circle again with the mayor on a proposed fee charged with rising voter turnout.
