Honolulu's proposed 115% hike in sewer fee under review

Yahoo

27-05-2025

Mayor Rick Blangiardi administration's proposed 10-year, 115 % sewer fee rate increase that's expected to begin this summer remains under Honolulu City Council scrutiny.
The Council's Budget Committee today is scheduled to review aspects of city-initiated Bill 60, which, if approved, will take effect July 1.
The measure passed its second of three readings April 16.
The city Department of Environmental Services says an average single-family residential sewer bill totals approximately $110.89 a month. By July 1 that bill could rise to $122.04 a month.
ENV contends planned sewer fee rate hikes are necessary to address rising operational costs as well as fund critical projects within its $10.1 billion capital improvement program, scheduled for 2025 to 2040.
That includes work to upgrade the Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant to full secondary treatment, which will cost an estimated $2.5 billion.
Potable water fee rates will not be adjusted, as they are separate fees administered by the Honolulu Board of Water Supply.
In October, ENV initially proposed to increase sewer fees annually for the next 10 years—by 9 % over the first six years, followed by smaller annual increases of 8 %, 7 %, 6 % and 5 % over the subsequent four years.
But since that time other versions to Bill 60 have materialized—including a revision by ENV itself that supposedly lessens the initial blow of higher fees to its rate-paying customers.
In April, ENV Director Roger Babcock presented to the Council's Budget Committee the so-called 6 % option—which sees sewer rates rise by 6 % on July 1.
Those rates would increase by 7.5 % in 2027, 8.5 % in 2028, 9 % in the following four years, then rise by 8 %, 7.5 % and 7 % in the final three years, ending in 2035.
Under this 6 % option, the city said, the same average single-family residential sewer bill in the first year would go to $119.18 a month instead of $122.04, a 2.3 % difference.
Babcock said new rates should ensure the city is 'whole, in terms of operations and maintenance, debt service and new debt issued in order to do our (capital improvement program ).'
But Council Chair Tommy Waters has said the city's new 6 % option is 'putting the big rate increases at the end of the 10-year cycle, rather than at the beginning.'
With regard to Bill 60, Waters' tentative proposal to increase sewer fees annually for the next decade includes a 6.75 % increase for the first five years, starting July 1.
The initial increases would be followed by an 8.75 % increase for the next two years, then a decrease to 7.75 %, 6.75 % and 5.5 % over the remaining years, 'thereby creating savings, ' he said.
Waters said instead of a 100 % increase over the dec ­ade, 'it would amount to approximately about a 70 % increase over 10 years.'
Legislation related to the city's sewer fund has also materialized.
On May 5, Waters introduced Bill 43, meant to redirect a portion of the 3 % visitor-­generated Oahu transient accommodations tax, which in part is earmarked for Honolulu's rail project, to the city's sewer fund.
Bill 43, as drafted, would temporarily amend the disposition of the city's OTAT revenues so that 50 % would be deposited into the transit fund, while 41.66 % would go into the sewer fund.
The legislation also allocates 8.34 % to create a special fund, one to be named by the city Department of Budget and Fiscal Serv ­ices, to mitigate impacts of visitors on public facilities and natural resources and 'supplement any funds regularly appropriated for that purpose.'
If approved, Bill 43 would take effect July 1, 2027, and be repealed June 30, 2037.
But critics of Waters' measure—including BFS Director Andy Kawano—say it's not a feasible option for the city to pursue.
'This measure will negatively impact the city's general fund and deviate from the intended purpose of the TAT, which is to provide general fund capacity to fund city services ; mitigate the strain visitors place on public facilities, emergency services, and natural resources ; and provide additional funding for rail (i.e., 'Skyline') construction, ' Kawano wrote in a May 12 letter to Council.
Still, Waters previously told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that 'Bill 43 offers a more strategic and equitable alternative to the administration's proposed 115 % rate hike.'
'By using the Council's existing authority to reallocate a portion of OTAT revenue, Bill 43 reduces pressure on working families, ' he said. 'It ensures that visitors who contribute heavily to the wear and tear on our water and wastewater systems contribute a fair share.'
The meeting begins at 9 a.m. inside Council chambers, 530 S. King St.