Water/Sewer Fund FY 2025 Budget

The Water/Sewer Fund has a Fiscal Year 2025 Budget of $90,184,656 in expenditures and $98,067,000 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 2025 Budget Book and here to read the FY 2025 Budget Ordinance.

Click here for a glossary of terms used in this page and the FY 2025 Budget Book.

FY 2025 Budget Highlights

The FY 2025 Water/Sewer Fund operating budget expenditures total $90,184,656 – up $5,641,422 or 6.7% from FY 2024. The FY 2025 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. Both contribute to the stability of northern Delaware’s water supply, especially in times of drought.

There is a 5.8% increase to water and sewer rates and a 4.0% increase to stormwater rates. The projected fiscal impact of the rate changes is an increase of $3.7 million in revenue to the Water/Sewer Fund in FY 2025. The typical residential customer in the city using 4,000 gallons of water per month will see an increase of $3.86 to their monthly bill.

Personnel costs rose by almost $590,000 mainly as a result of the mid-FY 2024 implementation of the City’s compensation and classification study recommendations. The implementation increased salaries and the number of anniversary steps for all bargaining units in the Water/Sewer Fund.

Staffing increased by a net total of 0.30 FTE. There were six personnel actions which resulted in a total net increase of $41,649.

The Contracted Maintenance Services account increased by over $1.5 million. Almost all the increase is in the contract fee to Jacobs (up $1.4 million) to operate and maintain the City's sewage treatment plant and help manage the City’s renewable energy bio-solids facility.

Click here for more FY 2025 Budget Highlights.

Breakdown of FY 2025 Budgeted Expenditures by Type

Breakdown of FY 2025 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 2025 Budgeted Revenues by Type

Overview of Budgeted Revenues

Total Water / Sewer Fund revenue is budgeted to be $98,067,000, an increase of $5.9 million, or 6.4%, above the FY 2024 budget.

There is a 5.8% increase to water and sewer rates and a 4.0% increase to stormwater rates. The projected fiscal impact of the rate changes is an increase of $3.7 million in revenue to the Water/Sewer Fund in FY 2025. The typical residential customer in the city using 4,000 gallons of water per month will see an increase of $3.86 to their monthly bill.

Water/Sewer User Fees are the direct charges to customers for water and sewer services. For FY 2025, Water/Sewer Fees are projected to total $64.8 million, an increase of $2.8 million from the FY 2024 budget.

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. Stormwater billings are expected to increase by $1.3 million or 15.5% from FY 2024.

New Castle County Sewer is the revenue associated with the City’s treatment of sewage from New Castle County. Total revenues are expected to increase by $1.8 million in FY 2025, for a new total of $22.7 million.