DETROIT (Michigan News Source) – Customers in the Detroit Area will see higher costs to their water and sewer bills starting this summer after the Great Lakes Water Authority Board of Directors elected to approve a 2.75% hike on both for the 2024 year. 

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During the GLWA Board Meeting on Wednesday afternoon, the five board members unanimously approved the budget with a final report and presentation provided by GLWA’s Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Nicolette Bateson who clarified that the proposed budget increase of 4% would be broken down into two parts: 2.75% of that funded from charges and the remaining 1.25% was going to be funded by the investment earnings. 

“We have an illustrative impact on the monthly consumer bill related to GWLA charges only so if their monthly bill for water was $20 and their monthly charge for sewer was $20 a 2.75% increase would be 55 cents,” Bateson said, “You combine that together for a total bill of $40.00 would got to $41.10 the $1.10 is still a 2.75% increase in total,” Bateson said. 

Her presentation to the board included four key takeaways via a Powerpoint presentation. 

  1. Budget: overriding theme is trade-offs due to unprecedented economic times in all areas of spending – chemicals, utilities, labor, and capital projects – while advancing resiliency. 
  2. Charges: The System-Wide Charges Revenue Increase is 2.75 percent for both Water and Sewer – well below the rate of inflation of 6.5* (as of Dec. 13, 2022 provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.) 
  3. Bad Debt Recovery: Highland park Bad Debt Expense is NOT included in the FY 2024 Charges. 
  4. CAP: For Water System Member Partners, the FY 2024 Charges reflect the every-four-year “reset” in shares based on Contrast Alignment Process (CAP) outcomes while promoting long-term stability. 

Bateson also reiterated GLWA’s commitment to keeping the 4% increase as the maximum and “keeping charges where they should be and always balancing affordability  with system resiliency.” 

The previous year, water saw a 3.7% increase and sewer rates rose 2.8%.  

While public comments were sparse, Mayor Gus Caladrino of Utica spoke up against the charges citing that as one of the smallest customers, they would also be experiencing one of the highest rates. 

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“Based on Miss Coffey’s comments that most of your members are satisfied with the new methodology, we are one community that is very dissatisfied with the new methodology,” Calandrino said, “When we received the proposed budget documentation, that the overall increase was 2.75% we were quite happy with that.  When we dove deeper into that document we realized that my small city was receiving an increase of 9.4%.” 

He expressed how disappointing it was because none of their contracts had changed and said that the consumption in the city was decreasing.  The community was “startled” by the increase because of how many seniors and those on fixed incomes live there and the increase was “unpalatable for us.” 

While the 88 communities who receive water from GLWA had a general increase, the individual cities set retail rates for customers that may differ.  

Bateson clarified that Highland Park’s debt expense was not included in the 2024 charges and since May 2022, Highland Park officials have been paying for sewerage services though not yet for water. 

“We are in a confidential mediation session with Highland Park, and we’re hopeful that through that process, we could find a long-term solution,” she said. “We thought the right thing to do this year was to just hit the pause button on any Highland Park bad debt expense, let this process play out, see if we get all the stakeholders to the table and come up with a longer term solution.”

The Director of Highland Park water, Damon Garrett, sent a letter, which was read aloud at the meeting ahead of the vote. 

“How is Highland Park’s fixed rate any different from Wayne County’s fixed rate that was in place from 1996 to 2005? How is it any different from Macomb County’s fixed rate that was put in 1980? … The difference is that both contracts were manually terminated and negotiated or new contracts were established which has not happened with Highland Park,” the clerk read. “Highland Park unilaterally objects to the rate increase.”

For the complete proposal and increases to communities, see here.