Casper council weighs $1 charge for paper utility bills as staff vows outreach and software review

City of Casper staff presented council with a two-part update on utility billing Tuesday: recent improvements in collections and a proposal to recoup paper-billing costs by charging customers who continue to receive mailed statements.

Director Johnson introduced the topic and said the city is not moving to mandatory paperless billing but wants to reduce costs where feasible. Anne Porter, accounts receivable, told council the customer service division budgets about $275,000 a year to print and mail roughly 246,000 bills and that about 7–7.5% of customers currently receive bills by email.

Porter outlined recent operational changes that have improved collections: requiring deposits for some new customers, reminder robocalls before shutoff, proactive personal contact for delinquent accounts and follow-up on zero-meter reads. She said collections results have improved year over year and the number of accounts referred to collections fell from 617 in 2024 to 367 in 2025.

On the paper-bill proposal, Porter said staff calculated a per-mail cost of about $0.79 for printed-and-mailed bills (about $0.74 per bill when averaged across all customers, including emailed bills) and that a small per-email cost (about $0.02) remains. “So by having this $1 fee, the customers who have opted to have a paper bill sent to them would then be the ones who are paying for that service,” Porter told council.

Councilors raised equity and practicality concerns for seniors and residents without reliable internet. Several members asked whether the billing software (the Tyler Munis product used by the city) could support giving electronic-billing customers a credit or discount; staff said the system currently does not permit automated negative charges in the configuration they tested. Councilors asked staff to contact Tyler support to explore whether a low-cost configuration, checkbox, or option exists before pursuing costly custom work.

Several councilors also urged a hardship process for customers who cannot go paperless and asked staff to document existing accommodations. Porter said staff already works case-by-case on hardship situations and could develop a formal waiver or exemption process if council directs it.

Council asked staff to run an outreach campaign to boost electronic-billing enrollment, coordinate messaging with landfill staff (paper bills had previously included landfill passes), and return in about six months with enrollment data. Staff agreed to explore vendor options, hardship pathways and outreach before the council would consider implementing a fee.