by Nicole Bradford
The bad news for Pearland utility customers is another rate increase—the good news is that it’s lower than last year’s projections.
Instead of a 17 percent increase predicted in 2024, customers could see up to a 14 percent hike.
The rate preview is a preliminary one, city staff said, and a final proposed rate will be submitted with the final budget on Aug. 7.
“It’s a preliminary look and we do have some additional work to do closing out revenues and expenditures on where we are this year,” City Manager Trent Epperson said, “and looking at (water service) connection growth.”
Large water and sewer projects are the main driver of rate increases since debt is used to finance them. The debt to be repaid each year is expected to increase from $35.5 million in 2024 to $38.3 million in 2025.
“We want to keep rates as reasonably low as we can, at the same time we’ve got debt coverages we have to get paid,” Mayor Kevin Cole said during a June 24 council discussion. “It’s truly threading a needle. We’ve been doing large capital projects trying to catch up, trying to be responsible. What would the cost be if we didn’t do it?”
Pearland utility customers saw a 14 percent rate increase for the current year, a 13 percent hike in 2023, and a 5 percent increase in 2022.
According to city data, the largest increases in recent years were in 2015 and 2017, with 16 percent rate hikes in both years — likely to catch up for several years where rates stayed flat.
“Had we done three percent these years that we did zero, we would still have increases now, but it wouldn’t be 13 and 14 percent,” Mayor Cole told city staff.
The city’s utility fund is separate from its operating budget, primarily supported by property tax.
