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Sugar City Budget FY 2027

Sugar City Budget FY 2027

Last week, City Council passed the tentative budget for fiscal year 2027, which begins Oct 1, 2026. We will hold a public hearing and vote on the final budget in our next meeting, August 27th.

As always, there were a few issues that we had to deal with this year.

Utilities and other such "enterprise funds" that cities manage have to be self-supporting. These include water, wastewater or sewer, and garbage collection. In practical terms, this means each year the rates for these services will go up at least enough to match inflation.

Garbage Service Costs

Rising fuel prices along with other general inflationary and structural increases have bumped up the county dump fees as well as the service provider fees paid by the city. These increases are passed on to the residents. The city does not make money off the garbage service. The city is more like a pass through account manager for such services. (The table at the end of this post shows the new fees for utilities including garbage that will go into effect Oct 1st as the current budget stands.)

Water and Sewer Rates

Based on inflation and actual costs, it looks like our water rates will increase by $2 for the base rate and $0.04 for the usage rate.

Our waste water or sewer rates are a bit more complex to calculate. In the past, the sewer rates have not kept pace with inflation and maintenance and replacement requirements as they should have. So several years ago, now, the council voted for a minimum rate increase each year, tied to the cost of living or inflation increase. In addition, the rate was increased to allow for our portion of upcoming required upgrades to the treatment plant in Rexburg and replacement of the 40+ year-old lines running from Sugar to Rexburg. 

Because we did this, the city is currently able to pay its share of the replacement line running from Moody Hwy into Rexburg without having to get a loan or bond passed. This is good management. As much as we dislike fee increases, necessary, incremental increases are usually less painful and less expensive than an additional loan or bond that residents have to pay. (We're currently saving money to pay to replace the aging line from Sugar to Moody. We hope we can keep the line working a few more years until we've saved enough to pay upfront to replace it.)

As part of required treatment plant upgrades, the City of Rexburg increased our waste water rates in January of this year. Rexburg has again increased the fees they charge us for this FY and will do so each year for the next few years to cover our portion of the improvements being made to the lines and treatment plant. (For more information about this, please see the post I made back in January, which shows Rexburg's planned rate increases for the next few years.

These increases have to be passed along to Sugar City residents. Again, utilities and other such services have to be self-sustaining. We have the responsibility to maintain the current systems and provide for normal replacement, upgrade, and service requirements in the future.

I would like to see a new wastewater district separate from Rexburg that we and Teton and other communities in our area outside of Rexburg could belong to. But, that idea comes with a huge price tag well into the tens of millions (or more). It may be possible or even necessary some day, but probably not in the near future, and how to fund such a project would be a challenge, for sure. 

The new rates are listed in the table below.

Other Items

We did have to move some funding around to make up for the cut we took in expected state road funding. But we will make do there. There are always places we might wish we had more funds to spend on, but the core, necessary elements of the city are covered adequately in the budget. If you wish to see the full tentative budget, please call or visit city hall for a copy.

I appreciate the mayor, city clerk, public works director, and other city staff who put together the proposed budget for the council to work with. They do a good job. The city is in a solid financial state. We don't have much money for ice cream, but all our bills are being paid, and we have dinner on the table each night.

Anticipated Utility Rate Changes

Water

FY 2026

FY 2027

Difference

Base Rate

$46.00

$48.00

$2.00

Usage per 1000 gal

$1.18

$1.22

$0.04

 

 

 

 

Sewer

 

 

 

Base Rate

$26.40

$27.00

$0.60

Usage per 1000 gal

$4.47

$4.90

$0.43

 

 

 

 

Garbage

 

 

 

Residential can

$18.63

$25

$6.37

2nd can

$13.98

$20

$6.02

3-yd dumpster (every other week)

$50.72

$54

$3.28

3-yd dumpster

$101.45

$108

$6.55

4-yd dumpster (EOW)

-

$73

-

4-yd dumpster

-

$146

-

6-yd dumpster

$190.53

$197

$6.47

8-yd dumpster

$248.39

$255

$6.61


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