Tucson to make decision on raising water bills for unincorporated residents

Tucson City Council is set to make a decision Tuesday on raising water rates for more than 71,000 residents of unincorporated Pima County.

Council members unanimously voted to begin the process at an April 6 meeting when they gave notice of their intention to hike rates for some Tucson Water customers. On Tuesday, they will host a public hearing on the issue and will have the option to implement a rate change and set the cost increase, decide to not implement a rate change or hold off on making a decision until a future meeting.

Mayor and council will also consider public outreach gathered from two town halls and a survey, as well as guidance from Citizens’ Water Advisory Committee, or CWAC, a group established in 1977 to advise City Council on water resource planning for citizens in and outside city boundaries.

The rate increase would not affect Tucson Water customers in jurisdictions such as Oro Valley, Marana and South Tucson, but rather unincorporated county areas including the Catalina Foothills and Avra Valley. The proposed rate changes range from a flat 10% to 50% increase or a 5%, 10% or 15% increase with a higher tiered-cost based on water usage.

The city says it takes more water, and more water infrastructure, to serve unincorporated areas. According to city staff, 29% of Tucson Water customers live in unincorporated Pima County and 36% of the utility’s pipelines serve these areas. They also say unincorporated residents use 43% more water than city customers.

But CWAC is recommending mayor and council hold off on making a decision until fall. They say a solid incentive has not been identified to justify the rate increases, and it’s not clear what the additional revenues would be used for.

Determining the cost

Tucson never conducted a cost of service study to determine how much money it takes to provide water to unincorporated jurisdictions as opposed to the city. Mark Taylor, the chair of CWAC, says this would provide some much needed justification for rate hikes.

In his 10 years serving as a member of CWAC’s finance subcommittee, Taylor says cost of service studies have always been used to determine rates.

“We haven’t been provided any information or any cost of service study that shows it costs more to provide water to the county residents,” he said. “If that cost of service study was done, I doubt we’ll find that there’s any more additional costs on the county residents than they’re already paying.”

But others argue providing water to unincorporated areas does cost more. Ed Hendel, a member of CWAC appointed by Mayor Regina Romero and founder of Our Water Tucson, a coalition formed to advocate for differential rates, says pumping water to unincorporated areas in higher elevations not only costs more, but takes more energy.

“We get (Colorado River) water, we pump it uphill into the Catalina foothills, so we’re pumping the water uphill to them,” he said. “Water is really heavy, you’re fighting physics here. It’s very, very expensive and energy inefficient to pump that water uphill.”

While the city’s exact reasoning for the rate hike is not clear, the foundation of Hendel’s support for the rates has to do with climate resiliency. He argues differential rates would help conserve water by incentivizing unincorporated residents to use less water to lower their bills and may also deter new development outside of the city.

“We’re bulldozing the desert and then building houses there and putting new water lines out there, which spreads our dwindling water supply thinner and thinner,” Hendel said. “Reining in sprawl and protecting the environment are some very important results of implementing differential rates.”

Unincorporated residents opposed

Many unincorporated residents have voiced their opposition to the rate hike. The survey gauging residents’ preferences on differential water rates will close the end of Tuesday, but as of Friday, 80% of nearly 2,000 respondents have said they are “very opposed” to the idea. Of the respondents, 76% said they live in the “greater Tucson area” instead of within city limits.

Unincorporated residents have also called into the city’s town halls on differential rates with a recurring complaint: They have no real say in the water decisions being made on their behalf.

The City Council will ultimately determine what unincorporated residents will pay for their water, but these residents don’t have any representation on the council.

“There’s a large portion of the Tucson Water customers that have nobody to elect and have no representation when it comes to rates,” Taylor said. “They can go and essentially change the rates dramatically, and county residents have no place to vote to say, ‘No, that’s unfair. I’m going to vote you out.’ This is the standard taxation without representation.”

But Tucson Water is not obligated to be the regional water provider, and Hendel argues the increased rates would be a step toward resolving an unfair practice.

Tucson “owns the water, and we’re giving them our water for unfairly low prices, essentially subsidizing their water,” he said. “It’s not a fair, equitable policy. It’s not a matter of taxation without representation; we’re giving you our water, and we’ve been giving it to you for way less than we should, so we’re going to fix that.”

Considering the firm opposition voiced by many unincorporated residents, Taylor thinks implementing the rate hikes would worsen the already growing rift among Tucson Water’s customers.

“There’ll be a lot of pushback by their county customers, and that’s a potential to divide their customer base into two classes. I would hate to see that happen,” he said. “It’s important for the Tucson Water customers to be treated equitably between all of them, and not break them into two different groups or two different classes. I think it’s a potential to divide the customer base of Tucson Water. “

Where would the revenues go?

CWAC has also taken issue with the city failing to identify what the revenues from the higher rates would be used for.

Some proposed uses of the extra funds so far include keeping the money within the utility to improve infrastructure, paying down existing debt and providing low income assistance programs.

“For us to do an evaluation of a moving target and an undefined request, we thought it was best to say, ‘Why don’t you define what you want to do, then give us and the rest of the public an opportunity to evaluate it?’” Taylor said.

While mayor and council have not identified what the funds would be used for, Hendel says the CWAC advisory board should be proposing options and claims his solution would solve the issue of increased rates for families struggling financially.

Hendel’s platform with Our Water Tucson is proposing raising unincorporated rates by 40% and using the money to help low-income families by canceling their water bill debt, lowering their water bills altogether and offsetting increased rates for low income families in unincorporated areas.

“The reality is if the Our Water Tucson platform is passed, low income families in unincorporated Pima County will see the new rates fully offset,” he said. “It’s really the wealthier families and businesses that can afford to pay.”

Ultimately, the majority of CWAC members are hoping mayor and council delay making a decision until more information about the cost of providing water to unincorporated jurisdictions is gathered and a clear reasoning for making certain residents pay more for water is identified.

“I think it would help the community, and it would give everybody, including the City Council, more information on why they’re doing this,” Taylor said. “I think a good definition of why they’re asking for the differential rates, what is the true need, and what they want to accomplish would help everybody determine whether it’s the proper decision or not.”

The public hearing on differential rates will be held at City Council’s regular meeting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 8. The meeting will be livestreamed on the city of Tucson’s YouTube channel.