A new 5% fee on your water, electric, internet, and cable bills generates ~$100 million a year — and is structurally a workaround to the property tax cap voters approved.
Regressive
The key facts
5%
Fee on gross revenues of every utility using public right-of-way: water, CenterPoint, AT&T, Comcast
$100M
Estimated annual revenue. Mayor frames it as ‘valet lanes’ for utilities using city streets.
550 days
Cash on hand at the Combined Utility System against a 300-day policy minimum. The surplus exists.
1.98x
Projected debt service coverage on $5 billion of CUS bonds. Ordinance requires 1.1–1.2x.
What this means for your household
A 5% fee on utility bills doesn't track how much right-of-way you actually use. It tracks how much you spend on utilities. That makes it structurally a tax on consumption.
Lower-income households spend a larger share of income on utilities. The fee hits a $30,000/year household harder (as % of income) than a $300,000/year household.
Renters pay utility fees directly but don't pay property tax directly. This fee converts ‘tax we can't raise’ into ‘utility fee renters pay too.’
The same Combined Utility System has 550 days of cash on hand. The Mayor's COO declined to claim there's no surplus capacity to lower rates instead.
“
It's like having money in my own account today and saying, ‘I don't want to use this. I'm going to go put it on credit or debt.’
— Council Member Edward Pollard, BFA Committee hearing (May 6, 2026)
What you can do
1
Use the calculator on the analysis website
The household-bill calculator in the budget analysis estimates your specific exposure across water, electric, internet, and cable bills.
2
Ask why ROW instead of property tax
Each penny on the property tax rate generates $26–28M. The proposed ROW fee is $100M. Why a regressive fee instead of raising property tax to the cap (~1 cent)?
3
Watch the rate study
Houston is in the middle of a CUS rate study with Raftelis. That study will determine whether the surplus is acknowledged or absorbed into the new fee structure.
Sources: Bond Buyer May 12; BFA hearing May 6; Public Works workshop May 13; CUS audited financials FY25.