Owned by the city of Las Cruces — one municipal utility running gas, water, wastewater, and trash, overseen by a citizen board and the elected city council.
Las Cruces owns its gas, water, wastewater, and trash services outright — a genuine local counterexample to the investor-owned model, and the reason the city's gas bills aren't set in Austin or Tulsa. Rate changes are argued at the Utilities Board and city council, in town, on the record.
It's also proof that public ownership isn't the whole story for a household's utility costs: the electric bill in every Las Cruces home still goes to private-equity–owned El Paso Electric, which is currently asking New Mexico regulators for a $70.4 million increase. The same house pays a municipal utility and a JPMorgan-advised fund every month.
One quirk worth knowing: your yearly sewer rate is set by your metered water use during the winter months — conserve water in December through February and you pay a lower wastewater rate all year.
LCU reminded residents that wastewater rates are calculated from winter billing-cycle water volumes — the annual conservation window that quietly determines a year of sewer bills, with the new rate first appearing in March.
The city's published utility rates — water effective January 1, 2026, with the last gas increase dating to 2022 — live on the city's rates page, alongside the process that caps board-approved annual increases at 5% without council sign-off.
Utility Watch is built on the same platform as this market’s archived public meetings — search the record for every time “Las Cruces Utilities” came up in council chambers.
🔎 Search the meeting archive for “Las Cruces Utilities”