SAN ANTONIO – A slim majority of San Antonio’s City Council elected to table discussion Thursday on a series of San Antonio Water System rate increases that could raise an average residential customer’s monthly bill by roughly $15 to $17 over the next two-and-a-half years.
Six members of the council voted in favor of pushing discussion of the proposed rate hike to October:
- District 1 Councilwoman Sukh Kaur
- District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez
- District 4 Councilman Edward Munguia
- District 7 Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito
- District 9 Councilwoman Misty Spears
- District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte
The water utility is looking to raise additional revenue, in large part, for billions of dollars’ worth of capital expenses, including upgrading wastewater treatment plants, replacing pipes and installing backup generators.
SAWS is owned by the City of San Antonio, though, and it’s the City Council that must approve the rates.
SAWS CEO Robert Puente has previously said that if the rate increase isn’t approved, the utility would be back in the fall to ask again.
“These are needs that have to be met,” Puente told the council during a June 10 briefing.
SAWS had originally proposed a set of rates that would raise the average residential bill to $18.51 — a 32.7% increase — by 2029. However, after a review of the utility’s proposal, city staff presented a slightly lower series of increases, with which they say SAWS agreed.
The proposal the council will now discuss this fall includes set rate increases to residential bills of 6.9% this year and 6.5% in 2027. However, the subsequent increases could vary in size — between 5.5% and 7% in 2028 and between 5% and 6.6% for 2029.
That would lead to an average residential customer’s bill increasing from roughly $56.68 before fees to somewhere between $71.48 and $73.61 — an increase of 26.1% to 29.9%.
The extra $14.80 to $16.93 per bill works out to an extra $178 to $203 per year.
Due to Thursday’s vote delay, when the first rate increases — as well as the subsequent increases — would take place was not immediately clear.
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.
Proposed increases for all customer classes can be seen below:
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