Pima County weighs returning to in‑house wastewater billing after Tucson Water proposes 127% fee increase
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Summary
County staff alerted the advisory committee that Tucson Water has notified Pima County of a proposed 127% increase in the fee it charges to bill wastewater customers — a jump staff estimated would raise the county’s billing cost from about $4.3 million to roughly $10 million annually. The county will evaluate options including negotiating the fee or rebuilding in‑house billing capability.
County staff told the Regional Wastewater Advisory Committee that Pima County currently relies on third‑party water providers (primarily Tucson Water) to bill wastewater customers and pays roughly $4.3 million per year for that service. Staff said Tucson Water has informed the county of a planned rate increase of about 127%, which staff estimated would add roughly $5.5 million — increasing the county’s cost for billing to around $10 million annually.
Staff said the county will evaluate multiple options in response: negotiating the proposed increase with Tucson Water, assessing whether to move billing back in‑house (the county last billed directly more than a decade ago), or exploring alternate billing arrangements. Moving to in‑house billing would require purchasing software and building internal customer‑service and billing capacity; staff said such an effort would take time and will be analyzed in greater detail before any decision.
Committee members were briefed on the mechanics of current billing arrangements: for larger water providers (Tucson Water, Metro, Oro Valley, Marana, Green Valley), those entities bill customers and remit wastewater revenues; small 'mom‑and‑pop' water companies (estimated at ~30,000 customers across the county) are handled differently and have higher delinquency rates because those entities cannot enforce water shutoffs.
What’s next: staff said they will prepare options and bring the issue back to the committee — likely beginning with the finance subcommittee — to determine a path forward and timing for any transition.