Council adopts four‑year water and wastewater rate schedule to support system costs and encourage conservation

The Buckeye City Council adopted Resolution 32‑26 on May 5, approving a four‑year rate cycle for water and wastewater intended to generate needed revenue, encourage conservation and simplify billing.

Public works staff described an extensive outreach campaign (about 66,000 bill inserts, 300+ emails to a dedicated rate address, and roughly 1,100 printed flyers) and said the recommended structure reflects input from a Water Rates Committee and multiple workshops. The proposal uses tiered usage charges to incentivize conservation and transitions commercial wastewater to a tiered structure so commercial users bear a revenue share closer to their usage.

Key elements: staff proposed a first‑year residential water increase of about 4% (with a 4.25% underlying increase thereafter), an underlying 7% increase on the wastewater side, and a phased approach for commercial tiers so impacts are smoothed across three years. Staff presented modeled bill impacts for typical residential customers and a range of commercial and landscape users; examples cited included an average residential 1‑inch meter user (6,000 gallons) seeing roughly a 5% overall bill increase in year one, and large commercial landscape meters seeing varying changes depending on usage.

Council opened a public hearing and received no speaker cards for the rate item. Council members asked staff about outreach to homeowners’ associations and whether HOAs would pass increases through to residents; staff said they had attempted outreach but received limited breakdowns from community managers. After discussion, Councilmember Eustace moved adoption of the rates; the motion passed unanimously.

The new rates are scheduled to take effect June 4, with subsequent annual increases each January 1 over the next three years. Staff will continue to monitor revenues and bring any necessary adjustments as part of the annual budget process.