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Hagerstown approves five-year water and sewer rate framework that reduces bills for most residential users, raises rates for high-volume users
Summary
Council introduced and approved an ordinance to implement a five-year (FY27'FY31) water and wastewater rate plan featuring an inclining block structure; staff said many residential customers will see quarterly bill decreases while large-volume and nonresidential customers could face significant increases.
The Hagerstown Mayor and Council on May 12 moved forward with a five-year water and wastewater rate plan that staff and consultants said is designed to make the utilities self-supporting and to build reserves for repair, renewal and replacement.
Nancy Hosra of the utilities department told the council the plan (prepared with New Gen Strategies and Solutions LLC) adopts an inclining block rate structure, maintains the basis for outside rates, and phases in fire line and benefit-fee increases to reduce reliance on benefit charges for debt funding. The plan would take effect for bills rendered on or after July 1, 2026, and run through FY31.
Hosra walked councilmembers through sample bills to show the distributional effects. "For water inside residential customers ... customers using less than 36,000 gallons per quarter, they will see actually a decrease in their water bill," she said. She offered numerical examples: a residential user averaging about 50 gallons per day would see a quarterly decrease of roughly $0.79; a user at 400 gallons per day would see about a $42.14 decrease per quarter. By contrast, higher-use customers would see increases (examples shown in staff materials included a roughly $23-per-quarter increase for 800 gallons per day and a roughly $776-per-quarter increase for 10,000 gallons per day in the combined water and sewer view).
The ordinance language introduced by council specifies that water benefit fees and fire line charges will increase 5% per year for inside and outside customers for FY27'FY31; wastewater benefit fees will increase 3% per year over the same period. Staff stated the structure reduces the need for annual rate approvals by providing a multi-year schedule and supports continued reinvestment in system infrastructure.
What happens next
The council introduced the ordinance and approved the motion; the rate schedule will be effective for bills rendered on or after July 1, 2026, subject to any further formal adoption steps required by local ordinance procedure.
