State approves sewer rate increase; York City official urges PA American Water discount applications

A city staff member said the state has approved a sewer company increase in sewer rates and urged residents to apply for PA American Water’s H2O Help to Others discount program to reduce bills.

The staff member said the increase was expected after York City sold its wastewater treatment plant in 2020 and argued that, without the sale, the city faced the prospect of large tax and fee hikes at that time. “When we sold the wastewater treatment plant, we were facing a 48% property tax increase and a 42% sewer fee increase just for that year,” the staff member said.

The city official described sewer fees as a usage charge that applies to every customer, including property-tax-exempt institutions. “The good news about sewer fees going up and not your taxes going up is that everybody pays sewer fees, even the entities that don't pay property taxes,” the staff member said, noting the fee increase is intended to fund replacement of sewer lines and other deferred maintenance.

The staff member gave numbers for the PA American Water assistance program and how few customers had applied: “PA American Water has a has a discount offer through their h 2 0 help to others program, and there are at least 5,000 customers. That's about a third of the customers in the city of York. 5000 customers that are eligible for discounted rates. And as of last week, only 450 of those customers had applied for discounts.”

The staff member urged eligible residents to contact PA American Water by phone or website to begin the application and to gather documentation of income and bills as required by the program.

The staff member framed the rate change as a shift of some costs from property taxes to usage fees over time: “So if we would not have sold the treatment plant, we would still be raising taxes essentially every single year.”