Pressure could lead Miami-Dade to soften water rate hike

Written by Miami Today on August 13, 2025

Water and sewer rate hikes starting Oct. 1 that Mayor Daniella Levine Cava budgeted at 6% could be held to 4% under Miami-Dade commission pressure but not a penny less without risking legal and financial consequences, she reports.

Pushed by a July commission order to find a new plan to keep rates unchanged, the mayor wrote that requirements of a federal consent decree to upgrade the system coupled with state law ending ocean outfalls of wastewater can’t be met without a rate hike, but the county could squeeze by with 4% more.

Commissioners in September are to set a final budget. The mayor cited a $402 million shortfall requiring severe cuts ranging from community services to arts and culture. Water and sewer fees are service charges, not part of property taxes.

A July resolution by Commissioner Raquel Regalado directed the mayor to draft a plan to keep water and sewer rates flat while maintaining services and complying with both regulatory and capital obligations.

Can’t be done, the mayor’s Aug. 6 memo replied.

At her 6% proposed hike, she wrote, the average household would pay $3.63 a month more than today, or $43.56 more yearly. At 4%, the rise would be $2.43 a month or $29.16 a year.

Roy Coley, chief utilities and regulatory services officer, told the county Appropriations Committee in July that “we can represent that we will not be asking for any rate increase to go towards operations. Efficiencies have been continuously found.” But, he said, that doesn’t cover hikes due to federal and state orders, which could require $500 million to $600 million a year that typically is funded by bond borrowing.

The five-year plan was for 8% annual increases for those needs, he said, though the county has been holding it to 4% to 6%.

In order to reduce her planned increase from 6% to 4%, the mayor said, the county could cut $11 million from planned water and sewer spending. Those cuts would leave 160 jobs unfilled; trim planned overtime 10% to save $3 million; and slice $1.5 million from consulting fees, resiliency administration, marketing, advertising and promotion.

“However, a 4% increase is the lowest feasible adjustment without delaying essential infrastructure projects or jeopardizing compliance with state and federal regulatory mandates,” the mayor wrote.

She did state that the water and sewer department “is actively reviewing internal policies and procedures to eliminate waste, strengthen operational effectiveness, and ensure responsible use of public resources.”

Even with a 6% fee increase, the mayor wrote, monthly water and sewer bills would stay under 1% of median household income. An Environmental Protection Agency benchmark, she said, “is that a combined annual water and sewer bill of less than 2.5% of the median household income is affordable.”

Much of the funding pressure comes from a 2013 agreement with the Federal Environment Protection Agency to address regulatory violations due to failing wastewater infrastructure that the county had neglected for decades. In 2014 a federal court approved the decree to replace two earlier decrees from the 1990s. Projects mandated by the decree were at the time to cover $1.6 billion in ordered projects.

The water and sewer department has now met more than 80% of its federal consent decree commitment, the mayor wrote, “having invested over $1.5 billion and completed over 60 capital improvement projects.”