by Nicole Bradford
rates won’t be as bad as previously forecast, now proposed at 7 percent.
In light of more than $520 million being invested in capital projects combined with past years in which utility rates remained flat, city staff in early 2024 warned that utility rates could jump by 17 percent. That forecast fell to 14 percent in June, and in August, the prediction fell to an 8 percent rate hike. City Council members on Aug. 19 requested the rate be pushed down to 7 percent as part of a plan to keep rate hikes at or below that increase in coming years.
“We can all sit up here and say, ‘We want the rate to only (increase) 2 percent this year, but we’re all going to be squirming next year,” Councilman Tony Carbone said during a recent utility rate discussion.
Some of the drop in the projected rate can be attributed to higher-than-expected revenues during a summer 2023 drought period.
“This was the happy medium where it kept kind of steady,” City Manager Trent Epperson told the council. “One of my concerns right now is we’re having the opposite of what we had last summer — a very rainy summer. That’s going to impact our revenues and we’re trying to be conservative and do something with rates this year that doesn’t wind up with rates increasing more than projected in future years.”
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. While increases are expected yearly, plans call for no more than 8 percent.
“Eight percent is eight percent — I don’t want anybody to think we’re callous to that,” Mayor Kevin Cole said. “But it’s not 14 or 17 which was on the books a year ago.”
For the average household using approximately 6,000 gallons of water per month, the increase represents roughly $8 added to monthly bills.
“Could we bite down a little bit? We could, but at what cost?” Cole said.
