Clovis approves 60% water-rate hike, bills to rise starting in 2027

Clovis water bills are set to rise from about $27 every two months to roughly $40 for an average single-family home, after the City Council approved a 60% rate hike that begins in January 2027. The increase, which passed after a failed majority protest, will be felt first by households, landlords and small businesses already balancing higher utility and housing costs across Fresno County.

The council action came after the city said it mailed notices, held public information meetings on March 25 and April 8, and heard from residents at a public hearing at City Council Chambers, 1033 Fifth Street. Under Proposition 218, only written protests counted, and the city said just 76 households submitted them, far short of what was needed to stop the measure.

The new schedule phases in the higher rates over three years, with a 21% increase in the first year, another 21% in the second and 18% in the third. City officials had initially floated a tougher plan in November 2025, calling for 23% annual increases, before revising the proposal down in the final version.

The city says the rate hike is being driven by inflation, sharply higher operating and maintenance costs and the need to repair and modernize a water system built decades ago. Assistant public utilities director Kevin Tuttle said, "With COVID, with inflation, we've really found that prices have gone up dramatically," and added that "The rate increase would really help the city in terms of financial sustainability."

Clovis says the current water rate structure was last approved in April 2016, and that the new rates were based on a consultant’s cost-of-service study approved by the council on Jan. 20, 2026. City materials say the system serves both Clovis and Tarpey Village, supplies more than 24,000 acre-feet of potable water each year, maintains more than 585 miles of water main and provides service to more than 40,000 connections.

City staff have also said the system can treat and deliver up to 22.5 million gallons a day, with room to expand to 45 million gallons a day. The city has said the higher rates are meant to cover nearly $83 million in planned water projects over the next few years and to build reserves for long-term reliability.

Clovis has said its current rates have lagged some neighboring Valley cities, but the new plan would move the city above some of them once all three increases are fully phased in. Officials also said smaller annual increases of about 3% could follow after the three-year plan, pending future review. For customers, the change lands as a direct hit to monthly budgets now, with the city promising that the payoff will be a more stable system later.