What's at stake?
The proposed rate hikes come as voters across the nation demand lower prices on everyday essentials from gas and food prices, and a reduction in their everyday taxes and fees.
Yearslong discussions on water and sewage rate hikes in the City of Fresno are about to come to boiling point, as the Fresno City Council on Tuesday initiated the process to increase rates.
The 45-day process, which the state requires through Proposition 218, culminates with a hearing at a special city council meeting scheduled for Dec. 29.
Thursday’s vote comes after the city punted on a decision last month to get a better forecast of the city’s financial future. Multiple tax measures that could fund the city and many other county projects were on the ballot. Though no races for these measures have been called, a clearer picture motivated enough councilmembers to kick off a process city leaders have said is long overdue.
“If we continue to drag it on…I wouldn’t term it as an emergency, but I would term it as very concerning and exposing the city to unnecessary risk,” said Fresno City Manager Georgeanne White at Thursday’s meeting.
The proposed increase would add about $1.77 to monthly utility bills, according to city documents, as rates progressively increase starting in 2027. The incremental hikes would eventually add up to $12.83 for water services by 2031, and an increase of $5.55 for sewage over current rates.
The council launched the effort on a 5-2 vote, with councilmembers Miguel Arias and Brandon Vang dissenting.
Vang said he took issue with the city planning a special meeting around the holiday season — right between Christmas and New Year’s.
However, most councilmembers elected to stay the course, as the city has already printed materials to follow the Prop. 218 process. The city would have to pay $300,000 in printing costs again if city leaders elected to hold a hearing on Jan. 7 at their first regularly scheduled meeting of the new year.
As part of the rate hike process, the city will send out protest cards to utility customers affording them the chance to reject the proposed increase. They will also hold community meetings to educate residents on the process, heading into a prospective hearing next month.
The process can be halted if a simple majority of ratepayers reject the proposal through the protest cards. About 180,000 protest cards will be sent out in the next few days, according to city staff at Thursday’s meeting.
The proposed rate hikes come as voters across the nation demand lower prices on everyday essentials from gas and food prices, and a reduction in their everyday taxes and fees.
Locally, Measure S, the proposed tax to replace the expiring countywide transportation funding measure, faces an uphill battle to get approval.
Measure A, a proposed countywide tax that would have largely only charged out-of-towners and tourists staying in the hotels and short-term rentals in Fresno’s unincorporated areas, appears headed toward failure.
In the City of Fresno, however, Measure D, a general tax placed on the ballot at the eleventh hour by city leaders as a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency tool to use if Measure S were to fall through, appears heading toward a comfortable win.
City greenlights housing in office zones and vacant buildings,
The Fresno City Council cleared the way for developers to build dense housing in vacant buildings on the city’s office zoned districts.
The vote concludes a contentious debate on how the city can address the local housing crisis while balancing state requirements with the demands of local homeowners’ anti-apartment NIMBY efforts.
Fresno joins a trend nationwide allowing apartments and office buildings to coexist in the same neighborhoods.
Following the normalization of work-from-home culture during the COVID-19 pandemic-induced quarantines, many businesses have seen their office buildings empty as workers choose to work away from the office. Many workers never returned following the end to the quarantines, leading to vacant office buildings in some of the country’s biggest cities.
