Tag: Water bill

A number of city-approved fee and rate changes adopted in recent months will officially go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026, and impact Fort Worth residents’ utility bills and city service charges.

Fort Worth will increase its stormwater utility fee by 5% in 2026 to create an estimated $2.6 million to fund drainage project and equipment upgrades, as voted on by City Council in September. The change will impact homeowners as well as commercial and industrial property owners.

Increases to most water bills will be minimal, as the average residential property owners will only see an additional 35 cents added to their bill, elevating from $6.94 to $7.29 next year for most homeowners, according to a statement from the city in September. Rates for commercial and industrial properties will be increased based on impervious surface and square footage.

Residential solid waste rates for garbage pickup are also increasing in the new year. A 32-gallon cart will go from $12.50 to $13.75, a 64-gallon cart from $17.50 to $19.50 and a 96-gallon cart from $22.75 to $25.75, City Council voted in October.

Other fee increases include a 75-cent increase to environmental protection fees, and slight increases to food inspection fees and development services fees.

The city of Forth Worth estimated in October that all those monthly fee increases would result in about $56.88 more in user fees in 2026 compared to 2025. But that increase will be partially negated by a recent property tax decrease of a quarter of a cent. That lower rate reduced the average homeowner’s tax bill by about $20 per year, according to a statement from the city in October.

Fort Worth also made changes to its water and sewage tier breakpoints in August, which will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026. The actual water rates are mostly the same, but the tiers that trigger higher rates will now start at lower usage levels. The second tier previously went up to 18 cubic feet of water, but that will drop to 12 cubic feet in the new year. The third and fourth payment tiers will also slightly drop.

New state laws taking effect

Fort Worth residents will also be impacted by a few new state laws that will officially go into law on Jan. 1, 2026.

Texas lawmakers passed legislation earlier this year to require app stores, like the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, to verify users’ ages and get parental consent before minors can download certain apps to their devices. But that bill was shot down by a federal judge on Tuesday.

New state laws that will go into effect include one that will speed up the eviction process in squatter cases in the new year and new framework that will regulate the use of artificial intelligence, which will include consumer protections and other disclosure requirements. All of these new laws were voted on by state lawmakers in recent months.