SAN ANTONIO – The average San Antonio Water System customer could see their monthly bill go up by $19 within four years under an initial rate increase proposal.
The utility is considering a set of rate increases that could bring the average monthly residential bill from $60.41 now to $79.47 in 2029 — a 31.6% increase.
The initial proposal, as laid out in a Tuesday presentation to SAWS trustees by SAWS Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Doug Evanson, would raise the typical bill between 6.7% and 8% each year between 2026 and 2029, before fees.
But exact figures, or even how many years’ worth of rate hikes, haven’t been nailed down yet.
“Those are the numbers that we are discussing,” SAWS Board Chairwoman Jelynne LeBlanc Jamison said of Evanson’s presentation. “We have not said that this is the plan.”
A rate plan would still need to undergo a public process and get not only the board’s approval but also the San Antonio City Council’s.
Jamison told SAWS staff she didn’t want the council to vote on its final approval before April.
“I think if we have a longer time frame, people will understand everything that’s in the plan,” she told KSAT. “We can plan better for what’s in plan. We have more certainty with the projects that will be coming online. And we can talk with more certainty with our customers about the new infrastructure that will come online.”
“It is a difficult decision to make, and I am sensitive to rates as well as everybody else. But I also have to look far in advance and make sure that we’re in a position to continue to deliver to this community who continues to grow."
The city-owned water utility expects it will need to raise revenues across its water supply, water delivery and wastewater systems by nearly 42% over the next five years. The additional revenue would cover operating costs and billions of dollars’ worth of capital expenses, including upgrading wastewater treatment plants, replacing pipes and installing backup generators.
The revenue needs do not directly translate to rate increases.
SAWS rates last went up in 2020, though the utility also restructured its rate system ahead of 2023, which did not affect its overall revenue. The restructuring resulted in many residential bills dropping, though there was an increase in commercial rates.
Under the plan Evanson presented, the initial bump in rates would still keep the average residential bill lower than it was before the restructuring.
He also said its rates are competitive with other cities. The initial bump would still keep an average San Antonio bill below most other major Texas cities, and still less than half what a similar customer in Houston might pay.
But any increase is unlikely to be popular.
“It may not seem like a lot to many, but it is a lot over time if you have other bills to take care of,” Kendall Hutchinson, a SAWS customer, told KSAT.
Amanda Ojeda, however, said higher rates made sense to her.
“I mean, we live in an older neighborhood, and they’ve probably built about a thousand houses around us in the past five years,” she told KSAT. “And we see the impact in the traffic, and we see that impact like just in how busy all the stores are in our area. So it makes sense that our water usage is going to be pricier."
Evanson said SAWS’ current rates plans would not increase the bills for customers in the utility’s Uplift assistance program.
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