Thursday, October 1, 2026
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Olympia residents could soon see higher utility bills, following the City of Olympia Finance Committee’s endorsement of rate increases for water, wastewater, stormwater and solid waste services.
The proposed changes would add about $12.04 to the average bi-monthly bill.
At a finance committee meeting on Monday, Oct. 20, interim Water Resources Director Gary Franks presented the consolidated “wet utility” budget, which covers drinking water, wastewater, and storm and surface water, along with the solid waste budget.
Under the proposal, 2026 residential utility bills would rise an average of 3.74%, or $12.04 bi-monthly for an average household using a 65-gallon garbage cart and 160 gallons of water daily.
The rate adjustments include:
That would bring a bi-monthly bill average to $334.
According to Franks, the proposed rate hikes stemmed from unavoidable cost pressure despite efforts to “hold the line” on the budget approach.
Rising salaries and benefits are the main drivers. The adjustments reflect the city’s Human Resources Classification and Compensation (HRCC) study, which aimed to ensure Olympia remains competitive in retaining skilled staff.
In addition, the city faces increases in property and liability insurance premiums. It is particularly affecting the drinking water and wastewater utilities.
Franks noted the drinking water utility faced additional cost pressure due to new state certification requirements.
The Washington State Department of Health now requires any employee who responds for on-call duties hold a Water Distribution Manager I certification. This change was incorporated into the city’s labor agreement, increasing personnel costs in the drinking water division more than other utilities.
The rate increases are partly due to reduced transfers from operating to capital funds to balance the budget.
For waste resources, one of the budget drivers includes the Clean Team Program transition.
Franks recalled that the 2025 budget shifted the city’s downtown program into the solid waste utility. It created an ongoing expense of about $900,000 per year. He said the city planned to phase in rate increases over two years to cover the cost.
“We are making up that difference in our proposed rate," Franks said.
Franks also cited tipping fee increases at the Thurston County Waste Recovery Center as a major cost driver.
Thurston County recently completed a financial study and adopted new rates that are going to take effect in 2026. The garbage disposal rate is going to rise to $133 per ton from $119 per ton.
The organics tipping fee is also going to increase to $75 per ton from from $37 per ton. In total, the higher county tipping rates are going to cost Olympia about $630,000 next year.
Council member Kelly Green, who also serves on the Thurston County Solid Waste Advisory Committee, noted the county’s tipping rates had not increased in more than a decade.
“We never get (an) explanation for why it was not adjusted with inflation,” Green said. “But it is a course correction from rates after years of unchanged rates despite rising service costs.”
Franks added that fleet and indirect costs are also rising moderately. To balance the solid waste budget, the city plans to reduce the capital facilities budget by $600,000. This would offset the county’s tipping fees.
“We did a fair amount of budget scrubbing to deal with uncontrollable increases and really try to keep rates as low as possible,” said Franks, explaining all utilities followed City Manager Jay Burney’s directive to maintain a “hold the line” budget.
The city is also recommending a 5% across-the-board increase in general facility charges for 2026 to help maintain and expand essential utility infrastructure. Franks said this adjustment would support Olympia’s long-term utility planning.
A public hearing for utility budgets is set for Nov. 3 at City Hall.
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TheVirtualOne
These increases are just automatic anymore, with no accountability to customers. Some serious business people need to take action to look at cost savings and report findings to customers. Time for some serious cutbacks and layoffs.
Tuesday, October 21, 2025 Report this
KatAshe
Like everyone else, I hate paying rising rates, but then I remember unlike California and Oregon, I don’t pay a state income taxes.
Tuesday, October 21, 2025 Report this
Stlaustinb
We really need to enact rate freezes for Seniors or we are all just going to move away. Between this and a ridiculous estate tax, yeah, we'll all go and take out money with us. Frankly, a 4-5% income tax like other states would be much cheaper for us than paying nearly 10% sales tax and rate increases that exceed the rate of inflation.
Tuesday, October 21, 2025 Report this
Shushu
This and all Olympia and Laceys unchecked rate increases and impact fees are why I moved. No middle income retired folks can afford it. Not to mention downtown is a dangerous horrible place to visit anymore. Go ahead and encourage the homeless to move there and look who is paying millions for it.
Tuesday, October 21, 2025 Report this
HappyOlympian
No hike wanted, but not that bad in dollar terms. One can always count on some odd logic or incorrect information when it comes to taxes in Washington. Estate taxes in Washington have a $3 million exemption in 2026, we the people, voted for that. A 5% income tax applies to all money made, a 10% sales tax applies to what someone purchases where the tax applies, a lot of the money I spend every month does not have a sales tax applied, food being a fine example. No way paying the sales tax even begins to approach 5% of overall income.
Tuesday, October 21, 2025 Report this
Larry Dzieza
Higher cost for less service.
While the waste resources fees are going up the city has decided to shut down the glass and cardboard recycling site on 10th Avenue.
The city sold their Plum Street property for $8.2 million so they need to relocated services and programs operating on those 10 acres. Everything was relocated except for the recycling services that many regular Olympians rely upon. Driving to the county dump in Hawks Prairie is not relocating the service.
The City Manager said at the time of the sale that he was "confident we will have a solid plan in place for relocation of all these programs and services within the 18-month leaseback period."
They also did this with no consultation with the public about it. I don't even think they brought it to the Utility Advisory Committee.
This is not a budget cutting necessity. The services are completely paid from our user fees and the city is relocating ALL of the ** other ** services and programs at the site, including spending $2 million on a parking lot for the employees.
This is not a budget cutting necessity. It is in a dedicated fund and the services are completely paid from our user fees.
Again, we get a fee increase but less service.
Tuesday, October 21, 2025 Report this
JohnFronono
Waaaaaaah! Whaaaaaaa!
I don’t want to pay my fair share!
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 Report this
wolfmanner
Keep voting the same left wingnuts into office Olympians.
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 Report this
JohnFronono
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 Report this
CobraCommander
All the naysayers here should just pull up on those bootstraps and work harder. You want things to be cheaper in this economy? No handouts! Work harder, dummy!
Trump promised you all would be rich and you fell for it - maybe ask him for some of that $250 million he's demanding be paid to himself from taxpayer money right now, yeah? Maybe those monies for a $200 million-dollar ballroom could have been better spent. $40 billion to Argentina.... jfc
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 Report this