{"id":388685,"date":"2026-09-02T22:19:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T22:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/388685\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T22:19:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T22:19:15","slug":"st-pete-residents-could-see-utility-rate-hike-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/388685\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete residents could see utility rate hike"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla.\u00a0\u2014 City council members in St. Petersburg are set Thursday to vote on a utility rate increase.<\/p>\n<p>City officials said the increase would help to pay for infrastructure improvement projects.<\/p>\n<p>If approved, the new rates would take effect Oct. 1, <a href=\"https:\/\/cms5.revize.com\/revize\/stpete\/2026-08-13%20Agenda%20Packet%20w_AddsDeletes.pdf?t=202608121656280\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">according to city documents<\/a>, based on monthly water usage of 3,500 gallons and a Tier 2 stormwater property.<\/p>\n<p>The proposed increases would vary by utility. The city is seeking a 7.5% revenue increase for drinking water, 6.5% for wastewater, 9.75% for reclaimed water, 8.5% for stormwater and 6% for sanitation.<\/p>\n<p>City officials said the proposed rates are based on the city\u2019s annual utility study, which examines the operating and capital expenses of St. Petersburg\u2019s five public systems.<\/p>\n<p>But there has been mixed feelings from council about residents having to bear the cost for the city not doing those projects years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, others argue the upgrades are needed to make the city more resilient to storms.<\/p>\n<p>There will be time for public comment on the issue at the hearing at City Hall, starting at 5 p.m.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Utility_rates.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"hashed-image\" img-data-alignment=\"center\" img-data-width=\"percent-hundred\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla.\u00a0\u2014 City council members in St. Petersburg are set Thursday to vote on a utility rate&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[274,558,2287,115,596,275,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,278],"class_list":["post-388685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-app-top-stories","tag-business","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-spectrum-news-staff","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}