Montgomery Backs a 7% WSSC Rate Increase Ceiling. Prince George’s Approved 5%.

Montgomery County is backing a 7% ceiling on next year’s WSSC Water rate increase. Prince George’s County approved 5% on Oct. 20. The 2-point gap is worth about $22 million a year to the utility that serves both counties, and for the third year in a row, the two councils are starting WSSC’s budget season on different numbers.

The Montgomery County Council voted 11-0 on Tuesday, Oct. 27, to adopt a resolution setting a 7.0% maximum average rate increase for fiscal 2028, which starts July 1, 2027, according to the Council’s session summary. County Executive Marc Elrich recommended the 7% ceiling on Oct. 7, and the Council’s Transportation and Environment Committee “unanimously supported” it on Oct. 12, according to the Council staff packet (page 3).

The Prince George’s County Council adopted CR-112-2026 on Oct. 20 with a 5.0% rate ceiling, on a 6-0 vote with five members absent.

What it means for a household bill

WSSC Water’s estimates use an average residential customer: a three-person household using 145 gallons a day on a 3/4-inch meter. Fixed fees would rise by the same percentage as water and sewer rates. Per the Council staff report (page 13):

• 5% increase: $18.58 more per quarter, or $6.19 a month
• 7% increase: $21.68 more per quarter, or $7.23 a month
• Each additional 1%: about $3.10 per quarter, or $1.03 a month

Each 1% of rate increase brings WSSC about $11 million in revenue, the packet says (page 2).

Lower now, higher later

WSSC’s own six-year projections show the trade-off. Under the 7% base case, rates would then rise 9.0% in fiscal 2029 and 7.5% in fiscal 2030. Under the 5% scenario, those years would rise 9.5% and 8.5% (page 11).

The 7% plan already assumes $28.7 million in operating cuts across the agency and a six-month freeze on filling vacant positions. The 5% scenario “would require an additional $22 million in reductions from the base case,” Council staff wrote (page 12).

Elrich’s Oct. 7 memo (page 49) says a WSSC analysis found the utility “needs an 11.7% rate increase to meet all financial targets by FY32.” WSSC then identified savings to reach the 7% base case, which Elrich wrote “will not allow WSSC to meet its financial targets within the next five years.”

What is driving the increase

The Council staff report (page 12) breaks down the 7% base case. The largest pieces:

• Debt service: up $31.1 million, or 8.0%
• Maintenance and operating costs: up $23.2 million, including professional services, benefits and chemicals
• Salaries: up $8.8 million for cost-of-living and merit increases
• Regional sewage disposal: up $7.0 million, or 7.8%

Underneath those numbers is a revenue problem. Water use across WSSC’s service area “has been essentially flat over the past 30 years even as the population served by WSSCWater has increased by nearly 40 percent,” Council staff wrote, and usage-based water and sewer charges make up about 80% of WSSC’s revenue (page 10). Staff also cited aging water and sewer mains, new lead-reduction and PFAS rules, and construction costs (page 14).

Some of those costs are already on the table. WSSC has listed $155 million in electrical fixes for the Potomac plant that lost power Sept. 29 and plans $298 million in PFAS treatment, as Moderately MOCO has reported.

The counties have split before

The two councils have set these limits every fall since 1994. They did not agree in 10 of those years, including fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2027, according to the staff report’s history table (page 8).

Last year’s split looked like this one. Prince George’s approved 5.0% and Montgomery supported 6.0%. WSSC sent a budget with a 5.0% rate increase but used surplus fund balance and higher investment income to spend at the equivalent of 6.0%, and both councils approved it (page 10).

The fall ceilings are guidance, not the final word. They tell WSSC how to build its budget request, but they “do not create a ceiling (or a floor)” on what the councils approve together in mid-May, the packet says (page 2). Under state law, WSSC’s proposed budget becomes the default if the two councils cannot agree on changes to it (page 7).

What happens next

• By Nov. 1: the target date for both councils to set the limits
• By Jan. 15, 2027: WSSC releases its proposed fiscal 2028 budget for public comment
• By March 1, 2027: WSSC sends the budget to both counties
• Mid-May 2027: the two councils vote on the final budget and rates

Montgomery’s Sept. 29 public hearing on the limits drew no speakers and no written testimony (page 1). The next chance to weigh in is WSSC’s public comment period on the proposed budget this winter.

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