AUSTIN -- Soon you'll be paying more for water in Austin. Now the question is: How much more?
Wednesday night, the Joint Committee on Austin Water Utility's Financial Plan held their final meeting to decide those rates.
Originally they were proposing a 14.8 percent to 15.4 percent increase on the average residential customer's water bill.
Now, they're considering an 11.8 percent to 13.3 percent increase.
The Joint Committee proposed lowering the rate increase after Austin Water Utility made recent cuts totaling close to $33 million.
The utility is losing money as customers continue to conserve water, therefore spending less on water bills.
"They're still using less and less than they did last year and the year before. So we're trying to keep ahead of them and their conservation efforts and trying to cut back as much as we can and still keep the utility operating," said Mickey Fishbeck, Chair of the Joint Committee on Austin Water Utility's Financial Plan.
Austin Water Utility's Assistant Finance Director David Anders told KVUE before the cuts; they were expecting to be "$27 million in debt on the water side, and about $10 million below on the waste water side" by the end of this year.
The recent $33 million in cuts to personnel and projects at Austin Water Utility will ease that burden, but the utility still needs to raise rates to make up the deficit, and for future operating costs.
City Council will make the final decision this summer and those rates would go into effect in 2015.
In addition to raising rates across the board, Austin Water Utility is also asking city council to approve a drought fee.
That fee would only go into effect when Austin goes into Stage 3 or 4 water restrictions.
Currently Austin is under Stage 2 water restrictions.
