The Tempe City Council has voted to suspend a planned 4.75 percent water rate increase and 2.5 percent sewer increase that were scheduled for Jan. 1, 2017.
As part of a 2015 rate study for water, sewer and solid waste utilities, the City Council had approved a two-year increase to utility rates. Each utility bill has sections for water, sewer and solid waste.
The first of the planned increases went into effect Jan. 1, 2016. The second water and sewer increases will not happen as scheduled in January 2017. Instead, the Council decided to examine the impacts of the 2016 water and sewer rate changes to various types of residential users, as well as to explore additional educational opportunities to encourage water conservation among high users.
For many years, Tempe has had a rate structure intended to incentivize conservation among residential water users. In 2016, tiers were revised to signal a stronger conservation message and to reduce bills for those with lower consumption while raising rates for the highest users.
The 2017 water and sewer increases, which have been suspended, were planned inflationary adjustments. Solid waste inflationary rate increases were unaffected by the Council decision – they will proceed in January and will equate to about 60 cents additional per month for single family residential customers.
Rate studies are done every two years in Tempe. The next scheduled rate study will begin in March, and it will include a public input process.