CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — After failing in their first presentation to City Council last week, both the capital budget and the wastewater rate proposal were approved during Tuesday's city council meeting.
The City's wastewater rate proposal was passed in a 6 to 3 vote.
City Manager Peter Zanoni explained what the proposed rate would look like for our city's consumers.
"There's a decrease of about $2 in the water rate that they approved last week, the wastewater rate is about a $5 increase, so when you combine the two the net effect is about a $3 increase per month for the average homeowner," Zanoni said.
3NEWS spoke with CCW's Chief Operating Officer Drew Molly about the reservations that come with increases in his department.
"I understand that's not an easy thing to see, but I think we really tried hard to explain why the rates went up a little bit," he said. "The CCW team, at least on the water and wastewater side, we're working really hard to keep those rates as low as they possibly can be. And the reality is over time there's going top be an upward pressure on rates and it's not just for the City of Corpus Christi, it's going on across Texas and the United States."
If the rates were not approved Tuesday, the City would have had to cut into the wastewater operating budget by as much as $12 million dollars. It could have also effected as many as 50 positions within the department.
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