The Aurora City Council has approved a hike in the city’s water and sewer rate.
City officials have said the rate increase during the next two years would be about 5% annually on an average household and about 9% on the average commercial user.
Chris Minick, the city’s chief financial officer, has said the revenue increase would go toward about $13 million in water and sewer capital projects scheduled in the 2023 budget. Overall, the water and sewer fund would look to raise about $43 million; operating and capital costs for the water system are about $40 million, he said.
The water and sewer fund is an enterprise fund that functions entirely on rates charged to users of the system. No tax money is used in the water and sewer fund.
The council approved the rate hike on June 27.
On a household bill, the rate will go from $5.80 for each 100 cubic feet of water used to $6.20 in 2023 and $6.60 in 2024. The availability charge would stay at $21.05 a month for the next two years, so the increase is entirely tied to consumption, Minick said.
He said the increase for an average household would be about $2.40 a month – or $4.80 on each bill, because the city bills every two months.
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Rate increases usually are done July 1 through June 30 of the next year, and are done in smaller increments every two years or so, instead of doing larger increases over longer periods of time.
During the coronavirus pandemic shutdown year of July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021, the city froze rates. In 2021, the city made a small increase of about 2.8% and in 2022, about a 4.5% increase.
During that time, chemicals to treat water have doubled in cost. Officials have said the city still is catching up from those lower rates.