A strong community needs good utilities and Longmont has some of the best.  Like electricity that’s been praised nationally for reliability. Or a huge variety of waste services that picks up your trash and recycling, collects your branches and leaves and even helps out with things like paper shredding or hard-to-recycle stuff.  

But keeping those high-quality services going takes work. And resources. Which is why it’s time to talk about utility rates.  

It’s a conversation nobody takes lightly – including us. We know that even a few dollars can make a difference for our customers. That’s why we try to keep any increases to as few dollars as we can while still providing the service you expect, along with providing options for bringing down the bill.  

The details are at our Utility Rate Changes web page (including a link to the full proposal) but here are the basics:  

• Longmont residents have paid the same rate for Waste Services since 2017, all while receiving that great array of services we mentioned. Like everything else, the costs have gone up over eight  years – but the revenue coming in hasn’t. So after years of cost-cutting measures (tight staffs, efficient routes, trucks fueled with renewable natural gas to avoid fuel price increases, and more), we’re asking for a rate adjustment between 2026 and 2028. For a 96-gallon trash bin, the largest size, next year’s rate would go up by $2.30 per month.   
• Most of Longmont Power & Communications’ expenses come from the rising cost of maintaining and improving our local electric system – especially as we step up the maintenance schedule to further increase the reliability you expect from us – and from buying the electricity that our partners at Platte River Power Authority generate as we both work to increase our renewable energy sources by 2030.  To meet that, LPC is asking for a two-year rate adjustment, which in 2026 would increase the average home’s electric bill by $5.95 per month.  

• We’re also asking the Council to increase the amount of Longmont CAReS, the utility bill rebate that helps households in need. That’s in addition to other opportunities to lower costs, such as energy-saving methods through Efficiency Works and CARE, assistance programs like Longmont’s COPE, or choices such as taking a smaller trash bin to bring the rate down. 

Again, we know it’s not an easy conversation. But it’s one we want to be straightforward about. And through it all, our goal remains the same: to serve you well.  

After all, you deserve the best.