The Omaha City Council will hold a public hearing Tuesday on possible changes to the sewer use fees paid by businesses.
An agreement between the city, Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, and 19 businesses would change the classifications for business and industrial customers. Mayor Jim Suttle says the goal is to simplify the rate structure. "We will combine all of the heavy industry, industry, and commercial in to one classification, and we will assign a fee structure to the size of the water meters they have. We’re already linked to water usage anyway as we calculate sewer bills, now we will just do a different means of administering the cost."
Suttle says the new classification would result in lower rates for heavy industrial users and slightly higher rates for commercial users. He says it won’t impact the residential sewer use fees. The city’s Combined Sewer Overflow project will cost $1.6 billion over 15 years.
The Omaha City Council meets at 2pm.