San Antonio Water System’s board of trustees voted unanimously on Tuesday to move forward with the utility’s first proposed rate hike since 2020 — a move that could drive up average household water users’ monthly bills by nearly $20 over time.
Even so, the measure still needs approval from at least five members of San Antonio City Council before going into effect. Council is scheduled to vote on the proposed increase at its June 11 meeting.
Under SAWS’ proposal, monthly watbils for the average household — or those who consume 6,300 gallons monthly while producing around 5,000 gallons of wastewater — would gradually increase over the next four years by a total of $18.51. That’s a $222 annual increase by 2029.
The proposed rate hike comes after SAWS President and CEO Robert Puente received a $132,000 bonus for his 2025 performance.
SAWS board members, including Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, maintain the rate hike is necessary to cover the cost of maintaining and improving the utility’s existing infrastructure. To that point, the system lost 16.5 billion gallons of water last year due to faulty pipes and leaks.
SAWS plans to use the revenue from the rate increase to replace 77 miles of water mains, improve a sewage treatment facility and expand an aquifer storage-and-recovery operation.
However, the increase won’t be used to finance the relocation of a SAWS chilling plant downtown as part of the development of the Project Marvel sports and entertainment district, according to officials with the utility.
At least four council members have expressed skepticism about the hike, including Ric Galvan (District 6), Marina Alderete Gavito (District 7), Misty Spears (District 9) and Marc Whyte (District 10).
“We do not have a revenue problem here at the city; we have a spending problem,” Whyte told the Current during a recent interview. “I’ve been through three budget cycles now, and it’s very clear to me that if we could become more efficient in how we spend our citizens’ tax dollars, we could fix more of our citizens’ problems.”
Whyte’s proposal, part of his broader Accelerate SA Vision, would hypothetically reallocate funds from underutilized city programs to subsidize infrastructure projects.
Even so, Mayor Jones argues the proposed rate hike is the most efficient and cheapest way to fix SAWS’s neglected infrastructure.
“While this is a rate increase … it is, in fact, the cheapest option to ensure we have the facilities we need in the interest of public safety and public health,” Jones said during Tuesday’s meeting.
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