Let’s take a little dive into something gloriously unglamorous — budgeting. Drama and excitement can be fun, but not when it comes to budget and rates planning. You want to know the folks tasked with tackling our region’s long-term water challenges are being as clear-eyed and careful with your hard-earned rate dollars as they are when protecting public health and the environment.
Nobody enjoys paying more. But we all know costs rise regularly — and lately they’ve been doing so dramatically. The utilities that provide your essential services are no more immune to cost increases than your household is. It’s not cheap to clean the water that leaves your home (just think about what you flush!), get the rain that falls in our communities to flow where it needs to go, and ensure the uniquely challenging Tualatin River is clean and healthy and able to meet our region’s agricultural, residential, industrial, and recreational needs.
We do a lot to keep those costs in check, like recovering valuable resources from your used water, working in partnership to share the load and increase positive impacts, and planning ahead for the region as our population grows and our climate becomes more extreme and unpredictable.
Our Adopted Fiscal Year 2024-2025 Budget includes a 4% rate increase, meaning the average household billed by CWS will pay about $2.50 more per month. We know the current economic reality is tough for most of us, and that it’s a time to really focus on being practical, pragmatic, and strategic.
A Livable Community
Part of being practical is investing in the systems that serve you so we can continue protecting public health and the environment 24/7 in the uncertain decades ahead. Our finances and budget are set up in a way that allows us to spread the cost of investments over their useful lifespan. This means you aren’t footing the entire bill now as we build or upgrade resources that will also benefit the people and industries that do not yet call Washington County home.
To serve our growing community we must maintain our collection system and treatment facilities, invest in infrastructure renewal and replacement, hire and retain talented employees, adapt to climate change, and meet stricter environmental requirements. Every investment we make is building toward a long-term solution. We are dedicated to keeping rates reasonable and predictable and providing value for you through a livable community.
Budgeting may not be the most thrilling topic, but we’re thrilled about how it will allow us to continue protecting your health and that of our watershed well into the future. Explore our Adopted Fiscal Year 2024-25 Budget to see how.
