The Wichita City Council have approved water and sewer rate increases for 2015. As KMUW’s Sean Sandefur reports, the decision will hit industrial users the hardest.
In a 4-2 vote, rate increases proposed by Wichita Public Works and Utilities were finalized.
Residential users can expect a combined 4 to 6 percent increase, depending on use, which translates to about $2—$5 a month.
The largest industrial users, such as Spirit Aerosystems, can expect increases of about 6.3 percent, or just over $3,000 a month.
In a conversation last week, Alan King, director of Wichita Public Works and Utilities, says the rate increases will accrue roughly $7.6 million for infrastructure improvements.
“This is taking care of the system that we presently have, it does not include adding additional water supply, like what was being considered under the one-cent sales tax,” King says.
City Manager Bob Layton says once these infrastructure improvements are made, annual sewer and water rate increases will go back to levels of about 3 percent.
There was a second option for rate increases, which shortened the period of increased water and sewer rates to one year, instead of two. This plan put even more of a burden on both industrial and commercial users, with increases of 6.5 percent and 7.2 percent, respectively.
King says an annual rate increase of 3 percent is closer to the rate of inflation.
