Mesa council approves water rate hike for businesses

The Mesa City Council approved an ordinance updating water utility rates for nonresidential customers during its recent meeting.

In a 6-1 vote, the council passed Ordinance No. 6002, which adopts new terms, rates and fees for city-owned water utilities serving nonresidential customers citywide. The rates change April 1. 

District 4 Council member Jean Duff was the only member who voted against the ordinance’s approval.

The ordinance applies to businesses and other nonresidential water users and will significantly increase their monthly bills, according to Duff.

The action follows earlier discussions about utility rate adjustments in 2025, Duff said.

The council initially proposed what she viewed as proportionate and necessary increases to residential water rates, she said.

After hearing strong opposition from residents, the proposed residential increases were reduced.

“This goes back to when we were doing utility rate adjustments, and at that time there was a big pushback from our residents about taking what I thought was a reasonable increase on our water rates and it was negotiated down,” Duff said.

Although residential rates did not increase as much as originally proposed, the city still needs to collect that revenue, Duff said.

“We pushed all that onto our businesses, and now on average, our businesses have a 20% increase, an average of $9.24 a month for 9,000 gallons,” Duff said.

The increase places a significant burden on businesses that use large amounts of water each month, Duff argued. The decision shifts more of the rising water costs onto Mesa businesses instead of spreading them evenly.

“I don’t agree with pushing this kind of rate increase on our businesses,” Duff said.

Duff apologized to Mesa businesses for the increase and said she believes residents could have absorbed a small additional monthly cost to help keep the city business-friendly.

“I’m sorry to our Mesa businesses for a significant increase this year. And I hope residents can absorb a little bit, 77 cents, in order to be business friendly in Mesa,” she said.

District 2 Council Member Dorean Taylor said the most recent rate increase for residents was higher than Duff’s comment suggested.

“I just wanted to say it’s $1.07, not 77 cents,” Taylor said.

Businesses in Mesa have historically paid lower water rates than residents relative to the strain they place on the system, and the goal of the latest increases was to correct that disparity, Taylor said.

“We did this because we were trying to create parity,” she said. “Businesses traditionally have paid significantly less than the residents.”

City Manager Scott Butler said the increase follows direction from a council majority to move more quickly toward balancing the cost between different groups.

“The majority of the council felt like they wanted to accelerate the time frame to get to parity,” Butler said. “It had been the objective of council to get to parity on the burden of which the different classes were putting on the system.”

Council Member Alicia Goforth said most small businesses in Mesa do not use enough water to see a large jump in their monthly bills.

“The majority of our small businesses use less than 6,000 gallons of water, three of which are covered in the service fee,” Goforth said. “Is it an impact? Yes. But, looking at our small businesses, the majority of small businesses will not be significantly impacted.”

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