No tax increase, but water rates going up as Columbia gives budget first nod
Columbia City Council gave a first approval to the city’s budget for the coming year, a spending plan that does not include a property tax increase but would raise water and sewer rates in the capital city.
The city’s 2022 general fund budget is balanced at $155.5 million. A Tuesday first reading of that part of the budget received unanimous approval from the Council. It marked the 12th consecutive year that the city has not raised property taxes.
But there are cost increases in the water and sewer budgets that will be felt by city residents. The water and sewer budget for 2022 clocks in at $182.5 million — making it the largest of the city’s operating funds — and calls for a 5% increase in water and sewer rates for city customers.
The water and sewer budget passed by a 5-2 vote, with Councilmen Sam Davis and Daniel Rickenmann voting no.
The city did not approve a water and sewer rate increase in the current 2021 budget, passed last June in the depths of the coronavirus pandemic. The last rate hike came in the previous budget year, when the price of water and sewer services went up 7%. City water and sewer rates in Columbia have gone up an average of 4.3% per year since 2008, per city officials.
“I have some angst about the rate increases,” Davis said during the meeting. “I would like to see us ... pay special attention, even more attention, to the actual impact of the increase on residents, especially residential. ... I just think that is something we’ve got to be very, very mindful of.”
With the rate hike, the average residential customer who lives in the city limits, one who uses about 6,000 gallons of water per month, would see their combined water and sewer bill rise from $64.55 per month to $67.79 per month.
Rickenmann, who is running for mayor this year, had previously told The State he wouldn’t support the rate increase, saying the city should wait until residents are “truly out of the woods (from the COVID-19 pandemic) and people have had a chance to recover.”
Second-term at-large Councilman Howard Duvall said he thinks the water and sewer rate hikes are appropriate to continue improving the water and sewer system infrastructure.
“Nobody ever likes to raise rates, but this is a very modest rate,” Duvall said. “A 5.02% increase. That’s about 2.5% (per year) over the two years. We didn’t raise any rates last year. ... I urge Council to bite the bullet and approve this increase.”
Mayor Steve Benjamin said the rate hikes will be used to invest in the city’s water system.
“The reality is, when you make investments in infrastructure, you’re not making them for 2021, you’re making them for posterity,” the mayor said. “I do believe that the very thoughtful and strategic investments we’ve made over the last, really, decade now will inure to the long-term health and benefit of our citizens.”
The would-be rate hike, which still needs to approved with a second vote from Council on May 18, comes at a moment when a segment of residents have had trouble keeping up with their bills. City staff noted recently that there were more than $14 million in past due water and sewer balances currently. Much of that debt accrued between March 2020 and February 2021, when the city suspended water disconnections for nonpayment during the doldrums of the pandemic. The city has since resumed disconnecting customers for nonpayment and has instituted payment plans to help customers catch up.
