The Abridged version:<\/p>\n
The city of Sacramento has $2.2 billion in water and sewer infrastructure needs that lack funding.<\/p>\n
Rate increases are proposed for the 2027-2028 fiscal year. The city hired a marketing firm to help persuade residents that water and sewer bills need to increase.<\/p>\n
More details on how much the utility rates could increase are expected in June.<\/p>\n
The city of Sacramento faces a $2.2 billion infrastructure backlog to upgrade water and sewer infrastructure, and residents could see higher utility bills by next year to pay the bill.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday night, the city\u2019s Utility Rate Advisory Commission voiced support for raising rates by the 2027-2028 fiscal year, and weighed in on marketing messages that might help tell residents why utility bills need to get higher.<\/p>\n
Per state law, Sacramento\u2019s utilities are funded separately from the city\u2019s General Fund and are predominately fueled by the monthly utility bills that residents pay for water, sewer and trash pickup.<\/p>\n
Consulting firm recommends messages <\/p>\n
A consulting firm retained by the city recommended that the city pair its proposed utility rate increases with messaging about how many of the city\u2019s water and sewer pipes are over 100 years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cMuch of our infrastructure is aging. We delayed updates to keep costs low, but now those bills are due,\u201d states one sample message. <\/p>\n
Other recommendations would emphasize how planned upgrades are less expensive than emergency repairs, a need to prepare for the future and the rising cost of materials.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Spencer Eberle said residents should know that the improvements would occur outside of Downtown and Midtown Sacramento.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to stress that this is univeral for all parts of the city, that all neighborhoods will be impacted, that all neighborhoods will be improved,\u201d Eberle said.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s included in the $2.2 billion backlog?<\/p>\n
Some 1,644 miles of water mains and pipes distribute clean water across the city of Sacramento, and another 1,985 miles of sewage pipes and storm drains keep the city clean.<\/p>\n
City officials estimate that upkeep on those pipes, drainage channels and water treatment systems, plus compliance with state and federal clean water policies, would cost billions of dollars the city doesn\u2019t have set aside.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s utility department projects it will soon have to spend reserves to cover the cost of infrastructure projects, according to budget documents. Meanwhile the city\u2019s water fund and wastewater fund are forecast to be operating in the red from 2025-2026 through 2029-2030.<\/p>\n
About $110.9 million of the backlog involves maintenance for drainage, wastewater and water systems. It also faces another $157 million in unfunded projects for storm drainage basins and trash capture programs.<\/p>\n
The city doesn\u2019t have money for hundreds of millions in \u201cmajor long-term\u201d projects.<\/p>\n
The city would need $1 billion for broad upgrades to the city\u2019s wastewater system. Nearly half of that amount is required for upgrades to the city\u2019s vast network of sewage pipes and underground sewage storage.<\/p>\n
Rehabilitating the city\u2019s water treatment plant and replacing some water mains would cost another $670 million.<\/p>\n
The city also estimates that it would require $283 million to upgrade its storm drainage pipes, pump stations and channels.<\/p>\n
Sacramento bills aren\u2019t the cheapest, or the most expensive<\/p>\n
Sacramento sits in the middle of the pack in the region when it comes to how much residents pay for monthly water and sewer bills.<\/p>\n
Single-family homes in Sacramento had a monthly water and sewer bill of about $127 during 2025-2026, according to a rate comparison study compiled by the city of West Sacramento when it was weighing its own utility rate hikes.<\/p>\n
Among eight local cities surveyed, Roseville and Folsom had the lowest bills, at $105 and $106 per month, respectfully. Woodland had the highest bills, with single-family homes paying $180 per month.<\/p>\n
More details on rate increase amounts expected in June<\/p>\n
The city expects a full study showing how much rates could rise will arrive in June. The Sacramento City Council would eventually decide the future of any proposed utility rate increases.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s utility director Daila Fadl told the commission that she\u2019s preparing to \u201chit the ground running with outreach\u201d during the summer months.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce June hits, we\u2019ll give you the numbers, we\u2019ll give you the fact sheets and we\u2019ll all be concurrently working together to get that out there,\u201d Fadl said.<\/p>\n
Felicia Alvarez is a reporter at Abridged covering accountability. She\u2019s called Sacramento home since 2015 and has reported on government, health care and breaking news topics for both local and national news outlets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Abridged version: The city of Sacramento has $2.2 billion in water and sewer infrastructure needs that lack…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[5592,121,123,122],"class_list":["post-239183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-feature","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}