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Montrose council begins 2025 budget talks, weighs phased water and sewer rate increases
Summary
City staff presented scenarios for 2025 water and sewer rates, including a 5% annual increase option and longer-term targets; council debated phased increases to balance capital needs for a wastewater project against rate shock to residents.
City of Montrose council began deliberations on the 2025 preliminary budget, focusing on proposed water and sewer rate changes intended to fund capital needs, including a major wastewater project.
Staff reviewed rate scenarios that included a 5% annual increase option and alternative phased approaches. Presentation slides and discussion addressed base-rate and per-thousand unit-rate changes and modeled their effects on an average residential bill. Staff noted that different weighting of base versus unit-rate increases could be used to reach longer-term targets without a single large jump. A presentation figure referenced a target benchmark for unit rates (shown as 7.41 in staff materials) that the city may need to approach over several years to fund the wastewater plant project.
Council members repeatedly raised concerns about the impact of sudden, large increases on residents and recommended a phased, predictable schedule of increases — for example, smaller annual hikes tied to inflation or a fixed percentage each year — so that residents understand future bills and the city can steadily build revenue for capital projects. One council member described the need to end years of underfunding and to accept a period of increases to make necessary infrastructure investments; another urged caution to avoid imposing excessive immediate burdens given concurrent tax pressures.
Staff and council discussed example impact numbers included in the presentation: a 5% scenario that would modestly raise average bills, and sample changes to sewer charges that could move a 5,000-gallon user's sewer bill from around $31 to about $46 under one scenario. Council asked staff to analyze staged approaches such as smaller per-thousand increases spread over two years, and to prepare clearer public-facing materials that explain what rate revenue pays for.
No formal rate ordinance or final decision was made at the meeting; council directed staff to continue budget work, produce public explanations, and bring refined scenarios back for additional consideration at subsequent meetings. Staff flagged a forthcoming discussion about the water-treatment facility at the end of October as part of the ongoing budget process.
