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As City Hall launches talks into next year’s general fund budget, commissioners are reviewing a priorities list including street upgrades, and drawing new business while planning to boost water rates — and maybe even setting aside money to buy water as the drought deepens.
Last year, officials mulled scrapping plans to boost water rates targeting households after commissioners fired former City Manager Manuel De La Rosa.
But the five-year water rate plan, passed in 2022, remains set to hit households in October, aimed at pulling the utility system out of the red while helping to pay off long-term debt tied to the new water plant.
“We have to,” Mayor Rick Guerra said Wednesday, referring to launching the plan calling for a 10% increase in household water rates spread out over a five-year period.
After holding off for years, in 2022 the city’s past commission launched the water rate plan, set to increase household rates by 2% each year for five years while boosting average annual utility bills by $1.02 to as much as $1.54, based on water usage.
Last year, as part of the current $16.7 million budget, officials launched the first part of the plan, raising commercial rates by 8.3% to as much as 9.8% each year over a five-year period, based on usage.
For businesses, the plan increases average annual utility bills by $12.34 to as much as $160.64, based on usage.
After years of delaying a rate hike, the utility system’s annual deficit had climbed to $2.8 million while long-term debt had swelled to $19.39 million.
To offset annual shortfalls, officials were dipping into the city’s general fund budget.
“It’s behooves us, from a city standpoint, to be as efficient as we can be,” Commissioner Tom Goodman said. “It certainly is a serious issue we’re dealing with — our infrastructure.”
Last week, commissioners met with City Manager Fred Sandoval to review budget plans, leading commissioners to set priorities.
“It’s streets and infrastructure,” Guerra said Wednesday in an interview. “We’re trying to get businesses and subdivisions, we’re trying to get retail and stores. We really need business for the taxes.”
During the upcoming fiscal year, Goodman’s priority list includes sprucing up the city.
“I want to see a lot more effort to clean things up, from dilapidated houses, making our parks looking better and cutting tall grass along roadways,” he said.
Meanwhile, he wants to help develop the city’s first comprehensive plan since 2016, charting San Benito’s course into the next decade.
As part of the budget, Goodman said he wants to hire a marketing firm to develop a campaign aimed at grooming the city’s image.
“A high priority for me is branding,” he said. “That has to do with how we market our community — what’s the look and feel of our community, what is our city image, what do people think of when they hear ‘San Benito?’”
During the workshop, talks turned to the drought.
Now, Valley cities are facing the prospect of buying “push water” to help convey water from as far as the Rio Grande, Guerra said.
“We’re going to be looking at budgeting for push water,” he said, planning to buy from cities holding extensive water rights. “It’s very expensive.”
