{"id":665,"date":"2026-06-18T22:31:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T22:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\/?p=665"},"modified":"2026-06-18T22:31:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T22:31:24","slug":"city-council-delays-saws-rate-increase-citing-concerns-about-trust-efficiency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\/?p=665","title":{"rendered":"City Council delays SAWS rate increase citing concerns about trust, efficiency"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

San Antonio City Council is asking for more time to consider water rate increases before they vote on them.<\/p>\n

Read more San Antonio weighs cutting Fiesta budget as it faces looming deficit<\/a><\/p>\n

In a narrow, 6-5 vote Thursday, city council members pushed back a decision on whether to increase water rates for the city-owned San Antonio Water System until October.<\/p>\n

SAWS had presented a plan to increase rates by between 26.1% and 29.9% for residents and between 26.8% and 30.4% for businesses by 2029. That would have kicked off with an average monthly residential rate increase of $3.91 this year.<\/p>\n

Council members Sukh Kaur (D1), Jalen McKee Rodriguez (D2), Edward Mungia (D4), Marina Alderete Gavito (D7), Misty Spears (D9) and Marc Whyte (D10) voted to hold off on a decision Thursday.<\/p>\n

Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones and council members Phyllis Viagran (D3), Teri Castillo (D5), Ric Galvan (D6) and Ivalis Meza Gonzalez (D8) voted against the delay and supported the rate increase.<\/p>\n

Now, SAWS will have to adjust its plan and respond to council members\u2019 concerns over the next few months, said SAWS CEO Robert Puente.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year \u2014 2027, 2028, 2029 \u2014 that rate will now go up a bit. We don\u2019t know how much,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For the council members choosing to delay the rate increase, the decision came down to a combination of trust and proposals for change.<\/p>\n

City council members noted SAWS existing issues with leaks and construction delays.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel there are major operational inefficiencies SAWS needs to work through,\u201d Alderete Gavito said. She has repeatedly raised concerns with water losses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy is it now that our trust has wilted, that there are plans to improve?\u201d asked McKee-Rodriguez. \u201cNow, all of our questions are getting answered and there\u2019s a plan to address our issues, and it\u2019s at this point when rate increase is needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more San Antonio pitches raising property taxes as high as legally allowed, plus big budget cuts<\/a><\/p>\n

Several council members noted lengthy construction delays on city projects that were due to SAWS issues with its underground infrastructure. Mungia asked for solutions to concerns from private businesses about infrastructure costs when it comes to connecting developments to the existing water system.<\/p>\n

Several council members felt a pressing need to approve SAWS\u2019 new rates as soon as possible, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have old infrastructure. We need to address that. And if you want equity infrastructure, it takes investment,\u201d Viagran said.<\/p>\n

Meza Gonzalez and Viagran also asked about a list of requests several council members had sent to Puente via email on Wednesday that they had not been included on. Kaur said she had put together the list.<\/p>\n

City Attorney Andy Segovia said council members could not use such a list as a condition for voting on the delay, but were allowed to request information from SAWS.<\/p>\n

Puente said several projects would have to be pushed back into 2027 because of the rate change delay, including updates to a wastewater treatment plant. Those would not create any public health risks, Puente said, but the cost of the projects, and therefore the rate increase, will increase.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrices never go down, they always go up. So some of these projects will be more expensive. It means three more months, a quarter of the year, without the additional revenue that we were going to be counting on,\u201d Puente said. \u201cThe rate increases that we were seeking, and we agreed to with the city, have to be relooked at and probably adjusted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Puente said he\u2019ll spend the next six months trying to answer council members questions and sharing the utility\u2019s plans and internal processes. Several council members, including McKee Rodriguez and Mungia, said they would be open to approving the rate increases in the future if their concerns are addressed.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, City Council is considering several other cost increases that could affect San Antonio residents including a looming budget deficit \u2014 and the potential for increased property taxes.<\/p>\n

Read more San Antonio, local utilities offer $185.2M incentive deal for Toyota expansion<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a narrow, 6-5 vote Thursday, city council members pushed back any decision on water rates until October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nCity Council delays SAWS rate increase citing concerns about trust, efficiency - San Antonio moving report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\/?p=665\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"City Council delays SAWS rate increase citing concerns about trust, efficiency - 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