Raleigh and Garner residents and property owners should expect to see an increase in the fees associated with their water and sewer bill beginning in July.
If approved with next year’s budget, sewer volumetric rates will increase 4.4 percent from $3.82/CCF to $3.99/CCF. A new infrastructure replacement fee is also proposed in order to fund the replacement of the city’s aging water infrastructure. Users with larger pipes will be charged more than users with smaller ones. The replacement fee is expected to raise about $10.7 million in revenue. 
City Councilors preliminarily approved the increase Tuesday in order to begin updating the billing systems and alert the city’s customers to expect a change. Final approval of the increase will come when next fiscal year’s budget is adopted by July 1.
As an enterprise fund, the water and sewer division are not part of the city’s general fund budget. Fees are generally used to raise money to make the division a self-sustaining entity.
