Sherman’s October bill changes remain unverified in city records reviewed

By GvilleTX Newsroom

For Sherman residents, water, sewer and trash costs come together in one household expense: the utility bill required by city code. Whether those charges will change in October 2026 remains unverified; the city’s budget page and rate schedules reviewed for this report do not confirm approval of the coming year’s budget or new service rates.

The published water and residential trash schedules carry effective dates from earlier years. They document the following charges, but do not establish what adjustments, if any, have been approved for this October. These amounts also do not represent a complete utility bill, which includes sewer service.

| Bill component | Published charge | Effective date |

| --- | --- | --- |

| Residential trash collected weekly | $15.30 monthly minimum before tax | Oct. 1, 2024 |

| Optional additional trash cart | $9.60 monthly before tax | Oct. 1, 2024 |

| Water base charge, 5/8-inch or 3/4-inch meter | $26.91 monthly; first 1,500 gallons included | Oct. 1, 2025 |

| Additional water within the tier ending at 20,000 gallons | $3.86 per 1,000 gallons | Oct. 1, 2025 |

Source: City of Sherman Rates & Fees.

Under the fiscal calendar on Sherman’s budget page, FY2027 opens Oct. 1, 2026. The approval recorded on that page is for FY2026, with council action dated Sept. 2, 2025. That entry documents the previous spending plan; it does not verify adoption of its successor. Nor does the absence of confirmation in the records reviewed establish that household charges will stay unchanged.

Earlier budgets explain some of the expenses behind Sherman’s utility finances. The approved FY2026 budget allocated about $59 million to water and sewer projects, financed through borrowing by the Greater Texoma Utility Authority for Sherman. Pipeline work and treatment-plant improvements were included, along with infrastructure serving the city’s Lake Texoma water supply.

For trash service, that budget identified a condition that could prompt consideration of higher rates: distributions from the Texoma Area Solid Waste Authority falling short of the budget or decreasing in later years. It did not establish an October 2026 increase. The same document described residential utility-rate increases of roughly 6% for FY2026.

Sherman’s FY2024 budget described preparations for substantial future debt payments through a multiyear buildup of utility reserves. It also documented the shift to consumption tiers, under which higher water and sewer usage carried higher rates.

That earlier budget attributed the solid-waste fund’s continuing imbalance to landfill disposal-fee increases already imposed or planned by the waste authority and the growing cost of trash trucks.