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WSSC presents rate scenarios; county staff say more analysis needed before affordability guidance
Summary
WSSC officials told the TIEE committee their base-case budget would require a 12.2% revenue enhancement for FY26 but provided scenarios down to 8.5%; county staff said they are not ready to recommend a single guideline and will continue modeling impacts with county executive staff ahead of Nov. 1 deadlines.
The committee heard a staff briefing from the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission and county analysts on the annual spending-affordability process. WSSC staff said the commission’s planning shows a base-case need for a 12.2% revenue enhancement for FY26 (the commission’s internal need was described as 12.5%), and staff provided alternative scenarios that reduce the increase to as low as 8.5%.
Vanessa Masar, WSSC’s chief financial officer, said the base case reflects “same service” costs — inflation, contract increases and normal operating pressures — and that the commission prepared multi-year scenarios to allow both counties to consider tradeoffs. General management emphasized infrastructure backlogs: “We actually reduced the CIP by a 100,000,000,” a WSSC representative said, noting deferred capital work and a long list of facilities nearing the end of useful life.
County staff told committee members they will continue working with Montgomery County and the county executive’s office to refine impacts and return with a recommended spending-affordability guideline before the combined council action later this fall.
