Gilbert rate hikes meeting financial goals as town works to ease customer burden 

By Tom Blodgett
Mail |
X: @sp_blodgett

While residents continue to voice frustration over rising town utility bills, leaders in the Public Works Department said the financial plan is working and that customer assistance efforts are expanding to help those most affected.  

Public Works Director Jessica Marlow said the primary drivers behind the rate increases include the reconstruction of the North Water Treatment Plant, drilling new wells to access groundwater credits amid Colorado River shortages and addressing accelerated failures in the wastewater system while stabilizing the town’s “enterprise” funds.  

“The rate increases were critical for us,” Marlow said. “Making sure that we can continue to provide clean, safe drinking water to the residents is one of our key functions.”  

Gilbert Town Council approved a phased water rate increase approach in water, consisting of a 50% increase in year one that was instituted in April 2024, followed by 25% increase in April of this year with another potential increase next year.   

Gilbert is between the second and third increases, and another rate study is underway to reassess whether the final phase is needed at the projected level. So far, the financial outlook is encouraging, Marlow said.  

“We are seeing the revenues are meeting the projections that we had,” Marlow said. “We are collecting what we expected for the rates on both the water and the wastewater side.”  

The collections are 1% over estimates for water in the year-plus since the first increase and 3% over estimates in the short time frame since those increases took place with April bills.  

Town officials said this level of precision means they are collecting enough to fund projects but not significantly overcharging residents.  

“Based on the fact that we collected the amount of revenue we expected, we’d be putting aside the amount of revenue we expected into the (enterprise) reserve funds,” Marlow said.  

Independent Newsmedia

Gilbert’s enterprise funds, which include water and wastewater, are self-sustaining funds. The functions supported by their rates are not financially supported by any other funds in town, nor do collections from them support any other funds.  

In other words, water rates only pay for water and water infrastructure.   

Town council policy also calls for the funds to maintain a minimum balance that includes three months of service and one year of debt payments. This minimum serves as a "rainy day" fund, buffering against unexpected expenses or revenue shortfalls.  

Water Manager Rebecca Hamel echoed the importance of getting ahead of infrastructure repairs, particularly in wastewater, where failures have come sooner than anticipated.  

“It’s much more affordable in the long term to repair something rather than replace it under an emergency,” Hamel said.  

Encouraging conservation 

The rate increases also are intended to encourage conservation. Those using more water pay significantly higher rates. For example, users in the highest consumption tiers saw up to an 80% increase in the first round of hikes, while average users saw about 46%.  

“The tiers are designed to encourage people to use less water,” Marlow said.  

Outdoor water use is a major focus for conservation outreach, accounting for an estimated 70% of household water consumption. The town’s conservation team monitors usage and often reaches out to residents with high or continuous consumption to help them reduce waste, Marlow said.  

“We’ll reach out and kind of help them diagnose (leaks) so they don’t get surprised at the end of the month,” Hamel said.  

Marlow called that one of the benefits of the AMI — or Advanced Metering Infrastructure — system. The system is tied into a new customer portal that gives residents more visibility into their water usage.   

Despite frustrations with signing up for the portal, officials said the technology ultimately empowers residents.  

“The portal does give you the visibility to your water usage, your water consumption, to help you understand maybe why your bill has potentially increased,” town spokesperson Jennifer Harrison said. “It also gives us some additional messaging opportunities to be able to reach out and share those programs that Water Conservation offers.”  

Those programs include rebates and incentives for turf removal, smart irrigation controllers and conversion to desert landscaping. Grant funding has allowed the town to expand those rebates in recent months.  

“Because of the grants that we’ve gotten, we’ve been able to increase the rebate amounts for people when they come in and want to do those turf removal or conversions,” Marlow said.  

Paying for infrastructure 

Major infrastructure efforts underway include the drilling of eight new wells and the North Water Treatment Plant reconstruction. Hamel said all wells have been drilled and are now in the design and construction phase.  

“We’re working through some of the water quality challenges that we found at a couple of those sites, designing treatment and blending so that they can be really high quality,” she said.  

Seeing such challenges — in this case, involving nitrates and arsenic — is not unknown, particularly in the Desert Southwest, though they were not originally factored into project budgets. The first wells are expected to come online by summer 2026, with others following in 2027, Hamel said.  

Meanwhile, the treatment plant is approaching a major milestone, expecting to reach 50% construction this fall, Hamel said. Testing is expected to begin in summer 2026.   

The town will run the new and old systems in parallel for six months before completing the transition.  

Ideally, customers will not notice a difference, Marlow said.  

“They’ll just know that whenever they turn their faucet on, they have clean, safe water coming out of it reliably,” she said.  

Payment assistance 

To help residents struggling with higher bills, the town partnered with AZCEND to administer a utility assistance program. Harrison said the number of households receiving aid has been increasing.  

As of the end of July, the town had 447 households enrolled in the program, with 17 new enrollments in July alone. Last year the program delivered about $32,000 in aid, and the amount per household has increased from $10 to $30 monthly as of April.  

 “The other thing they did is also adjusted the income qualifier to make it so that more people could qualify,” Marlow said. “We have seen an increase in participation over the last few months since the latest increases went into effect.”  

Funding remains available, and council is monitoring enrollment trends. The assistance program requires annual renewal and could expand if necessary.  

Marlow acknowledged the challenges residents are facing.  

“I’m a resident, too,” she said. “It’s impacting me.  

“It’s hard, but we know we have a responsibility to the town and the residents to maintain all of this and make sure that we’re able to provide those services.”  

Inflation in recent years has significantly driven up construction costs, and those effects are still being felt with projects like the North Water Treatment Plant. Marlow said the rate increases are paying for that construction inflation surge from past years. 

 But those pressures are easing, she added.  

“It’s calmed down a lot,” she said. “Going forward, the construction inflation adjustments that we’re making are much more in alignment with normal inflation.”  

The town’s rates, once among the lowest in the Valley, are now trending toward the middle of the pack. After going nearly a decade with no water rate increases — and even reducing solid waste rates twice — Gilbert is now in catch-up mode.  

“We went so long without any increases that we’re also catching up from that,” Marlow said. “Nine years and then one increase and then nothing for four more years.”  

Despite the complaints and growing pains, officials insist the rate structure, conservation programs, and infrastructure investments are all designed with long-term reliability in mind.  

“It goes back to our responsibility to the public to maintain infrastructure,” Marlow said. “We take that very seriously.”  

We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on X. 

Tom Blodgett
Senior News Editor | Gilbert

tblodgett@iniusa.org

Meet Tom
Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.

Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.

Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism. 

Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.  

Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).