Water/Sewer Fund FY 2022 Budget

The Water/Sewer Fund has a Fiscal Year 2022 Budget of $79,567,575 in expenditures and $83,134,269 in revenues.

Click here for a Citizen's Guide to the Budget Process. Learn how the Budget is created and view a timeline of events.

Click here to view the FY 2022 Budget Book and here to read the FY 2022 Budget Ordinance.

Click here for a glossary of terms used in this page and the FY 2022 Budget Book.

FY 2022 Budget Highlights

The FY 2022 Water/Sewer Fund operating budget expenditures total $79,567,575 – up $1,759,742, or 2.3% from FY 2021. The FY 2022 Budget continues to support the high-priority initiatives essential to achieving financially self-sustaining and environmentally-sound water, sewer, and stormwater utilities. These include an accelerated Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) mitigation effort, and finished water filtration and supply improvements that exceed EPA standards, contributing to the stability of northern Delaware’s water supply, especially in times of drought.

There was a 3.0% increase to water and sewer rates and a 2.0% increase to stormwater rates. The projected fiscal impact of the rate changes is an increase of almost $1.58 million in revenue (net of bad debt) to the Water/Sewer Fund in FY 2022. The typical residential customer in the City using 4,000 gallons of water per month will see an increase of $1.75 to their monthly bill.

The budget contains a $254,000 allowance for an up to 2.0% cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) salary increase for eligible employees. In addition, mandatory anniversary salary step increases for classified service employees added $82,300 to the budget. Lastly, the latest biennial employee appeals process led to an increase of $45,271.

Staffing increased by a net total of 0.80 full-time equivalents (FTE) and includes the results of the latest biennial employee appeals process. Those changes, along with other personnel actions, including changes in grades and salary adjustments, resulted in a total net increase of $72,758. The component cost of the appeals process in the Water/Sewer Fund was $17,204.

The largest change to the Materials Supplies & Equipment account group was in the Finance Department, which added $393,000 in the Consultants account to assist in the replacement of the current water utility billing system. Some of the major tasks expected to be performed would be defining system requirements, assisting in the preparation and issuance of requests-for-proposals, and vetting and selecting the best vendor.

Click here for more FY 2022 Budget Highlights.

Breakdown of FY 2022 Budgeted Expenditures by Type

Breakdown of FY 2022 Budgeted Expenditures by Department

Water/Sewer Fund Staffing Levels Over Past 5 Years*

*Note: City staffing levels are measured in units of full-time equivalents (FTE). Many positions in the City are split-funded, which may result in a fractional FTE. For example, a position could be funded 60% from the General Fund and 40% from the Water/Sewer Fund, resulting in a 0.40 FTE in the Water/Sewer Fund.

Breakdown of FY 2022 Budgeted Revenues by Type

Overview of Budgeted Revenues

Total Water / Sewer Fund revenue is budgeted to be $83,134,269, a net increase of $3.9 million, or 4.9%, above the FY 2021 budget.

Water/Sewer User Fees, the Water/Sewer Fund's largest source of revenue, are projected to total $52.2 million, an increase of $4.0 million from the FY 2021 budget. Excluding year-end accruals (which can vary significantly from year to year), FY 2021 appears to be consistent with prior years, with limited net impacts from COVID. We project that FY 2022 will be similar to this, with a starting base of $48.7 million (up $594,000 from the FY 2021 budgeted base). Added to this is the projected impact of a 3.0% rate increase on Inside City water and sewer fees along with a 3.0% rate increase on Outside City water fees. Combined, these rate increases yield nearly $1.5 million in additional revenue, net of bad debt. For the typical Inside City residential customer, these increases are equivalent to $1.65 per month.

Stormwater Billings are the revenues derived from the Stormwater Property Fee, which is charged to all property owners in the City. The fee is not based on a consumption factor, but rather on the size of property and the characteristics of associated land and buildings as they relate to the generation of stormwater runoff. The Stormwater Billings base for FY 2022 is nearly $8.5 million. A 2.0% increase to the Stormwater rate is expected to yield an additional $170,000, for a total of nearly $8.7 million. For the typical residential customer, this increase is equivalent to $0.10 per month.

New Castle County Sewer is the revenue associated with the City’s treatment of sewage from New Castle County. Efforts to resolve the dispute between the City and County and finalize a new sewer contract are expected to continue into FY 2022. While the County had previously begun providing a higher payment in FY 2020 (which served as a basis for the FY 2021 budget) it subsequently reduced this payment during FY 2021. Net of a $233,000 increase for debt reimbursement, this lower payment results in a reduction to projected FY 2022 revenues of nearly $709,000, for a new total of $21.2 million.