COLUMBUS, Ohio — For the second year in a row, Columbus City Council is weighing an 18% water bill increase for city and suburban customers that could cost the average household more than $100 a year, The Columbus Dispatch reported. Council will have the final say, and it intends to vote on the rate increases on November 23, according to The Dispatch — a decision that lands on every water, sewer and stormwater bill in Columbus and the suburbs the city serves.
The arithmetic is concrete. As proposed, city customers would see their combined bill for water, sewer and stormwater rise by about 10%, and suburban customers by about 11% on their combined water and sewer bill, The Columbus Dispatch reported, citing Columbus Water & Power estimates. The average Columbus household of two to three people would see its annual bill rise from $1,247 to $1,371 — about $124 more a year. The average suburban household of the same size would rise from $1,370 to $1,523, about $153 more.
City officials say the money is not optional. The increases would bring in at least $20 million more in revenue, needed for a fourth water plant and other infrastructure, The Columbus Dispatch reported. The plant is already delayed — the city received no bids this year to build it for nearly $2 billion — and officials are targeting a re-bid in early 2027, Deputy Water & Power Director Jon Lee told The Columbus Dispatch.
The city faces a second, quieter bill as well: about $1 billion to replace its remaining lead service lines under a federal mandate, The Columbus Dispatch reported. Between the plant and the lead lines, the department’s position is that the revenue has to come from rates — the question on November 23 is how fast.
The opposition, this time, came from inside the city’s own advisory process. In a rare rebuke, as The Columbus Dispatch described it, two advocates for low-income residents and seniors who sit on the city’s seven-member Utility Advisory Board voted against the water increase at an October meeting: Katie White, executive director of the Central Ohio Area Agency on Aging, and Jackie Gutter, a staff attorney at Legal Aid of Southeast and Central Ohio. White also voted against a city electric power rate increase. The board voted unanimously for a 4% sanitary sewer rate increase and a 2% stormwater rate increase; all of the board’s votes are advisory only.
White told The Columbus Dispatch that inflation and federal changes to Medicaid and SNAP are already hitting residents hard. “We absolutely need to make sure our water infrastructure is up to date, it just is coming at the cost of residents,” White said, in remarks The Columbus Dispatch reported. She suggested delaying the 18% increase by a year — as the city did with its new high-demand water surcharge aimed at data centers, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
The department’s answer was the plant: Lee told board members a delay could further delay it, The Columbus Dispatch reported. Councilmember Christopher Wyche, who chairs council’s Public Utilities & Sustainability committee, backs the increases. “We have to make adult choices and smart decisions on where we are going from an infrastructure standpoint,” Wyche said, in remarks The Columbus Dispatch reported. “We cannot wait to build things when we need them because then it will be too late and the cost just continues to go up.”
Electricity is the smaller half of the package. Columbus also provides power to about 19,000 residential and commercial customers through its Division of Power, and the division is proposing a residential rate increase it estimates will raise customers’ monthly bills by about $10 — while still coming in lower than what Ohio Power (formerly AEP) charges, The Columbus Dispatch reported. For commercial customers, the division is seeking no electricity rate increase in 2027, to stay competitive with Ohio Power’s commercial rates.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on: the proposal’s shape is settled — 18% on water, 4% on sewer, 2% on stormwater, a residential-only power increase of about $10 a month — and council’s utilities committee took it up at a November 12 hearing at City Hall, The Columbus Dispatch reported. What is not settled is the vote: council intends to decide on November 23.
The city’s cushion for the households hit hardest is its discount program — underused, by the city’s own account. Columbus Water & Power discounts bills for seniors age 60 and older and households earning up to 200% of the federal poverty line (a three-person household at $51,876 or less qualifies), and the savings for income-qualified customers is set to rise from 30% to 35%, The Columbus Dispatch reported. Enrollment is up 36% in a year to about 11,800 customers, including about 5,700 seniors, but many eligible homeowners are still not enrolled. Residents can apply at columbus.gov/payassist or by calling (614) 645-8276 on weekdays, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
What happens next: Columbus City Council votes on the rate increases on November 23. If approved, the new rates take effect for 2027, the fourth water plant goes back out to bid in early 2027, and every Columbus and suburban water customer will see the decision in the combined bills The Columbus Dispatch priced out — about $124 more a year for the average city household, about $153 more for the average suburban one.