GREAT FALLS — Great Falls City Commissioners voted on Tuesday for a 27% increase in water utility bills, effective July 1, 2025. Public Works director Chris Gaub said that a 10% rate increase would have kept the city where it is. But the 27% rate’s purpose?
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Gaub said, “To help catch up to where we should be on investing in our utility infrastructure.”
That “should” was presented as a 36% increase from where the city is currently at.
Gaub continued, “And two, to help us invest in our system, to improve it, to better facilitate the current system as it stands, as well as to facilitate, development in Great Falls.”
Many citizens showed their support for the higher increase
One citizen said, “We think that this helps us continue to gain ground as we rebuild our city in many ways.”
Another citizen said, “We gotta do what we gotta do and figure out a way to make it work.”
Others were opposed to the high increase.
A citizen said, “We're going to soon be having people losing their homes and living in the street.”
Another citizen voiced, “Being a landlord, you know, we’ve then incurred all of the extra since it’s been put back on us, to pay the whole bill rather than the tenants paying bills.”
The commissioners agreed that 27% increase felt steep, but they decided it was the only option.
Commissioner Susan Wolff said, “Come on. I mean, we just have to do this if we want to have a community that we're going to live in.”
Commissioner Rick Tryon said, “We have a responsibility to make sure the future of our community can be a place where our kids and our grandkids want to stay and want to live in.”
The commission voted for the 27% increase, five to zero.
