{"id":282972,"date":"2026-04-24T01:11:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T01:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/282972\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T01:11:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T01:11:39","slug":"bakersfield-residents-speak-out-against-council-sewer-rate-hike-urge-alternatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/282972\/","title":{"rendered":"Bakersfield residents speak out against council sewer rate hike, urge alternatives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 During Wednesday\u2019s City Council meeting, Bakersfield residents urged councilmembers to reject a<a href=\"https:\/\/bakersfieldnow.com\/news\/local\/city-council-weighs-sewer-rate-hikes-for-2026-31-after-scrapping-300-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> <\/a>proposed sewer rate increase that would raise bills by more than $200 in the first year, followed by about $100 more each year over a four-year period.<\/p>\n<p>REALTED: <a href=\"https:\/\/bakersfieldnow.com\/news\/local\/city-council-weighs-sewer-rate-hikes-for-2026-31-after-scrapping-300-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">City council weighs sewer rate hikes for 2026-31 after scrapping 300% increase plan<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Not one person spoke in favor of the proposal during public comment, with several speakers asking the city to consider alternatives.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWorking families like mine and like my neighbors deserve relief, not higher bills,\u201d said Genevieve Egana, a Bakersfield resident and librarian at Beale Library.<\/p>\n<p>Kern County is also protesting the proposal, according to Claire Collins, an attorney who specializes in water and environmental law and is representing the county.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe county respectfully requests that the city consider spreading these costs over a longer period. It\u2019s something we call generational equity,\u201d Collins said.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers say the money is needed now, especially the first-year increase to $475.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe first-year rate is really to bring us out of the red. It is to truly provide the cost,\u201d said Evette Roldan, assistant water director and wastewater manager for the City of Bakersfield.<\/p>\n<p>Roldan said taxpayers have historically paid low rates for water maintenance, but that is no longer sustainable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been able to maintain, but we can no longer do that. We now need to raise the rate in order to right-side the rate, in order to truly recuperate the costs that it is costing the city to provide the service,\u201d Roldan said.<\/p>\n<p>Roldan said the city has been researching the proposal for the past 15 months.<\/p>\n<p>Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n<p>BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT<\/p>\n<p>Another public hearing is set for May 13. The City Council is also scheduled to vote that day on whether to approve the proposed rate increase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 During Wednesday\u2019s City Council meeting, Bakersfield residents urged councilmembers to reject a proposed sewer rate&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":{"0":"post-282972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bakersfield","8":"tag-bakersfield","9":"tag-bakersfield-headlines","10":"tag-bakersfield-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282972","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=282972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}