Utility bill hike could be coming for Salt Lake City residents in 2020
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Salt Lake residents could see increases on their utility bills starting next year.
“It’s pretty affordable, anyhow,” said Chris Jorgensen, a Salt Lake City resident for 15 years. “I get it that we live in a society where we all have to work together to have good, clean, livable space."
Many of the Salt Lake City residents we talked to on Tuesday didn’t seem to mind the idea of paying extra for their utilities.
“I would expect it. We have a lot of people moving into Salt Lake City,” said Sugar House resident Michelle Stone. “We have to support the amount of people that are here.”
Tuesday night, the Salt Lake City Council will be taking public comment on the issue for the second time before making final decisions on this issue in the 2020 budget.
The big hike that would be coming is the 18% increase in sewer rates. Laura Briefer, director of the Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities, said they must build a new sewer treatment plant by 2025. The plant is projected to bring rates up by 100% by the end of construction.
“We do like to put that out there in our budget, so that it's very transparent, we can talk about it with the community, with our elected officials,” Briefer said.
Briefer said it must be done because the current plant is 55 years old and needs upgrades to meet state requirements.
“Those are the things that make our city run, and it's our duty and obligation to make sure that we are taking care of current and future generations of our citizens,” she said.
The water increase is proposed at 5%, but Briefer said because of a rate restructure, residents may see a decrease.
“This year, and in future years, we've been mitigating what the rate increases will do for our residents with respect to a rate restructuring,” she said.
However, for commercial and industrial customers, she said they will see the increase in water bills. Storm water is a proposed increase of 10%.
Council members are expected to decide on the utility increase on June 11.
More information about possible rate increases can be found online here.