Statesboro residents, developers and other city utility customers will have to pay higher fees – including various water and sanitation rate increases designed to deliver a roughly 10% overall increase in fee-based revenue for those services – with the city budget that took effect July 1.

“Most people won’t see it until they get their August bill,” said city Finance Director Cindy West. “It depends on what the service is. The August bill would definitely be the soonest, but we’ve got to get (the new rates) keyed into the system.”

City Council, during its June 20 meeting, approved the Fiscal Year 2024 (beginning July 1, 2023) budget with a 5-0 vote on a motion from District 4 Councilman John Riggs seconded by District 2 Councilwoman Paulette Chavers. Also unanimous was a vote on a motion from District 1 Councilman Phil Boyum, seconded by Chavers, to approve the new annual schedule of fees, rates and fines.

A 10% hike in solid waste collection and disposal rates and an approximately 10% increase in water and sewer rates had been part of the list of “budget assumptions” West and City Manager Charles Penny presented to the mayor and council during a May budget work session.

A 10% increase in the value of the property tax digest from construction and inflation was also included in those assumptions. On top of that, the staff recommended a 2-mill increase in property tax, and that recommendation also remained part of the budget assumptions when council adopted the budget. However, the millage rate was not automatically decided. To comply with a state law known as the Georgia Property Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, the city must yet hold three public hearings when the council decides how large the tax increase will be and votes to set the rate.  In past years those hearings have usually been held in August.

At this point, no dates and times have been slated for the hearings. City officials are waiting for more definite tax digest numbers from the Bulloch County Board of Assessors office, said Statesboro City Clerk Leah Harden. For the same reason, the Bulloch County commissioners, with a 1.75-mill increase suggested in the county’s separate tax rate, haven’t scheduled their tax hearings either.

The county assessors and staff are completing the appeals process in which property owners can challenge increases in their valuations.

But the city’s utility fee increases became certain with the council’s adoption of the schedule of rates and fees.

Sanitation fees

The sanitation fee hikes are relatively straightforward. For example, the basic monthly collection fee for residential polycart service is increasing $1, from $13.10 to $14.10, and the landfill tippage fee that goes along with it is increasing 50 cents, from $4.15 to $4.65 a month, and the accompanying yard waste fee, previously $1.75, will also increase 50 cents, to $2.25.  The sanitation deposit for opening a new residential account is being increased from $35 to $42.

The basic polycart rate had last increased six years ago, on July 1, 2017, and those other fees 11 years ago, in mid-2012, city staff members noted in the text of the new rate schedule.

Water and sewer

For water and sewer service, the approved set of fee increases is a little more complicated.

Technically, only the base charges are being increased for water service. For example, the base charge for residential service inside the city limits, with a standard 3/4-inch water line from the meter, is increasing from $7.50 a month to $9. But the water usage rates are all remaining the same, still $2.25 per 1,000 gallons up to 9,000 gallons, then $2.35 per thousand for 10,000 to 19,000 gallons, and so on as before.

However, usage rates as well as the base charges are going up for sewer service, where the quantities are assumed based on metered water usage. For example, the base charge for residential sewer service is being increased from $7.50 to $9, but so is the charge per thousand gallons, rising from $2.70 to $2.97 for the zero to 9,000-gallon bracket, and similarly for higher-volume brackets.

Following a study of Statesboro’s rates completed last year by the Raftelis financial consulting firm, the city aimed to increase residential sewer rates by 10%, commercial sewer rates by 8% and “governmental” sewer rates – such as those paid by Georgia Southern University – by 6%, said city Public Utilities Director Steve Hotchkiss.

$3 typical increase

“Based on the results from our study that was done, right now for about 5,000 gallons a month, which is pretty typical for a customer here, their water and sewer combined bill is right at $40 with their base fees and everything added in,” Hotchkiss said. “And in the future, with the new base charges and the new sewer rates, it’s going to go to about $43 a month.”

The last increase in base charges occurred in 2016, the last change in usage charges in 2012.

For customers outside the city limits, who Hotchkiss said make up about 5% of the total water and sewer customer base, Statesboro continues to maintain base charges and usage fees double those of in-town customers. So proportional increases are being made on that basis.

Meanwhile, the city is actually moving away from older distinctions of “residential,” “commercial” and “industrial” rates to instead differentiate base rates by the size of water meters. The new fee schedule includes a list of these, ranging from the new monthly base rate of $9 for a meter for a 3/4-inch line to $360 per month for a meter serving a 10-inch diameter line.

Those changes are intended to make the system fairer and also reflect the fact that larger meters are much more expensive, Hotchkiss said.

Customers may not see all of the increases even in August.

“The sewer charges are being put in effect now, but because we have got to build some new rate models for our computer billing system, it may be a couple of months before the base charge fee increases actually go into effect,” Hotchkiss said July 11.