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City staff proposes modest utility-rate increase to keep up with inflation
Summary
City staff presented a utility-rate proposal that would raise water and sewer rates roughly 2.5% to track recent CPI changes; staff said the adjustment is modest and intended to preserve infrastructure and cost recovery.
S3 (Presenter) told the council the headline recommendation is a modest rate adjustment tied to inflation: "So, you know, I'm thinking roughly 2.5% is where we need to adjust rates. This is just to keep up with inflation," and said the change would be applied across water, sewer and related enterprise charges.
S3 framed the recommendation with recent CPI data and state comparisons, noting 2024 inflation at about 2.9% and year-to-date 2025 roughly 2.3%. He presented a billing example showing a representative 5,000-gallon water-and-sewer bill near $92.45 under the proposal and contrasted that with a North Carolina average of $95.14 to argue the city would remain below the state average. S3 emphasized that the adjustments are intended to maintain cost recovery while keeping local bills comparatively affordable.
