Longview proposes water bill increase, no raises for city workers

LONGVIEW — Longview residents may have an increase in their water bills as part of the proposed budget for next year.

The City of Longview held a special council meeting on Thursday to discuss the fiscal year 2024-2025 budget. City Manager Rolin McPhee made a presentation where he proposed a $95 million budget.

McPhee said the State of Texas receives from Longview more than twice in sales tax revenues than what Longview receives from property and sales taxes combined. The projected tax revenue the state will receive from the city will be nearly $192 million while the city is projected to receive less than half at $87 million tax revenue. To offset this, McPhee proposed a water and sewer rate change, something the city has not seen in five years.

“I want to applaud the public works utility personnel that have managed that. They have done that through organizational improvements, reorganizations of certain divisions and have maintained the system to improve it while still maintaining the same rate base. This is not sustainable any longer,” McPhee said.

If this is ratified, residents will see a 21 cent increase for water minimum including 2,000 gallons. Residents will have to pay $2.78 for each additional 1,000 gallons– an increase of 13 cents.

District 6 Councilman Steve Pirtle noted that McPhee’s proposed budget did not include a pay increase for public safety and public utility workers and feared losing them to cities such as Tyler.

Pirtle said, “This is going to affect somebody making $15 an hour. Those are the guys that I am worried about. A guy making $15 an hour, that’s kind of tough for him to pay his bills every month and then everything else around him is going up consistently, his gas, his groceries.”

Councilmembers asked that McPhee look for solutions to their concerns to present at their next meeting.