(The Center Square) – Private water utilities could be prevented from imposing massive rate increases if Illinois state lawmakers pass legislation currently in committee.
Aqua Illinois and Illinois American Water sought tens of millions of dollars in rate hikes from consumers last year. The Illinois Commerce Commission reduced Aqua’s increase by 43% to just under $11 million in November. The ICC dropped Illinois American’s hike by 30% to $110 million the next month.
State Sen. Laura Murphy, D-Des Plaines, filed Senate Bill 75 in an effort to curb such moves by private utilities.
Citizens Utility Board Director of Governmental Affairs Bryan McDaniel called the rate hikes “insane” and urged support for SB 75, which would require private water utility shareholders to pay more than consumers for new acquisitions by the utilities.
“They’re trying to buy up as many systems as they can, and when they buy a system, they recover the entire cost of the system from their existing customers,” McDaniel told The Center Square.
CUB is also targeting an extra charge water utilities pass on to consumers.
“The other part of that bill would end a surcharge on water bills that allows the water utility to spend money more quickly and thus raise rates more quickly. This is called the QIP surcharge: Qualifying Infrastructure Plant surcharge,” McDaniel said.
He said monopolies should not be telling consumers what the true cost of water is, adding that public water is usually cheaper than private water.
“In a public system, you’re not paying utilities’ profits, which they usually want a profit margin around 9 to 10%. You’re not paying utilities’ acquisition costs, which were $410 million and counting over the last ten years in Illinois in systems they bought, and you’re not paying utilities’ taxes on their earnings, which gets recovered from ratepayers, too,” McDaniel said.
SB 75 was assigned to the Energy and Public Utilities Committee. Five state senators have signed on as co-sponsors.
Kevin Bessler contributed to this story.
