Montrose, CO – Due to increasing capital construction costs, the City of Montrose will implement an inflationary rate increase for sewer customers beginning April 1. 

The 2.7-percent increase was recommended to the City Council for consideration and approval as part of the 2018 budget process and is the only increase that has occurred since 2011. 

While the increase will raise the residential customer’s rate by $.59 cents-per-month, city staff are excited to announce that enough funds have been reserved in the “Emergency Sewer Backup and Customer Assistance Fund” to eliminate the $.25 cents-per-month surcharge for every customer.  Therefore, the net financial impact to the city’s residential sewer customers will be a slight increase of $.34 cents-per-month.

Water, sewer, and Trash & Recycling funds of the city are enterprise funds that are supported through user charges rather than taxes. The city’s Municipal Code was updated a few years ago to provide for an annual inflationary increase for the Water, Sewer and/or Trash and Recycling Funds effective April 1 of each year if deemed necessary. However, a rate increase was not requested for any of these funds over the past seven years in an effort to help customers recover from the recessed economy.

An inflationary increase to the fee structure within the city’s Sewer Fund will ensure that the fund balance keeps pace with expenses and remains stable moving forward.

City customers will receive notification of the increase on their next monthly bill.

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