Next year’s budget for the city of Santa Fe has been a central discussion point in recent days, and last night that debate turned to paying for water and wastewater services.
It may mean that residents will soon pay more each month for those utilities, but the city’s new manager said the increases would be small compared to what he has seen in other cities.
Mark Scot was appointed as city manager during the winter, and has worked for municipalities from Beverly Hills to Spartanburg, South Carolina.
At last night’s city council meeting he said Santa Fe is long overdue for increasing the water fees.
"It's been a long time since we've changed our rates," Scott said.
"I've seen worse and I've seen cities that suffered tremendously difficult rate increases of 50% or more for multiple years. I'm very pleased to be in a city where the request at this point is frankly, very modest in considering all of the money that gets spent in these very vital functions.”
The city’s current combined average water and wastewater monthly bill is $65.
The recommended rate hike would increase the monthly bill by four percent each year, for a total monthly bill of $82 in fiscal year 2034.
That amounts to about a 26 percent increase over ten years.
Interim Public Utilities Director Jesse Roach broke down the finances during yesterday’s meeting.
Roach said that water rates haven’t risen since 2013 and there’s been only one increase in wastewater fees since 2010.
Meanwhile, the inflation rate between 2013 and 2024 was 41 percent.
Other rationale behind the hikes includes several large capital projects to improve delivery of services.
Four projects would carry a combined price tag of about $125 million.
A separate plan to rehabilitate the city’s wastewater treatment plant is estimated at $182 million.
Roach said the city is continuing to research whether replacing the plant altogether would make more fiscal sense in the long term.
He said the city is also looking to potentially offset costs through loans, grants, and a proposed increase to a fee in lieu of water rights.
Mayor Alan Webber and councilor Carol Romero Wirth introduced an ordinance to the governing body last night officially proposing the fee hikes.
