Wichita City Council members have voted unanimously to approve water and sewer rate increases for 2025, with the exception of one provision that will be considered later.

Public Works Director Gary Janzen said a long-range plan for rate increases was presented to the City Council in 2019, but that plan is no longer sustainable because of inflation, operational changes and other challenges.   He said costs that were previously estimated for the city’s new water treatment plant are now known, and they have been factored into the rate plan.   He said inflation has increased operation and maintenance costs to the water system by 10 percent on average over the past three years and the sewer system has had an average increase of 7 percent.    Janzen said there have been efforts made to stabilize rate increases but savings in operations costs have not been enough to overcome inflation and other challenges.

The rate increases will be 6.75 percent for water and 4.75 percent for sewer, for a combined rate increase of 6.14 percent.  That will increase the average bill for most residential customers by about $3.21 per month.

Council members had reservations about a proposed change in the late fee for late payment of the water-sewer bill, and they voiced concerns about the impact on low-income residents who have struggled to pay bills.   The late fee has been 1.5 percent of a customer’s unpaid balance, but the fee was proposed to increase to 5 percent. Janzen said that would be an average increase of $3.12, and that would not provide complete recovery of costs but it will be an improvement.   He said the city has connected customers to a number of assistance programs and the city has an H2O fund to help customers who are struggling to pay their bills.  The programs have helped 469 customers as of the end of October, and that number is expected to be higher by the end of the year.

The Council agreed to delete the section on late charges and city staff will bring back more information at a later time.  Council members also called on staff to increase efforts to inform the public about the assistance programs.