City Council Passes Mayor’s Water and Sewer Tax

On September 14, the City Council overwhelmingly passed the water and sewer tax proposed by Mayor Emanuel to shore up the largest of the City’s pension fund.  The tax begins in 2017 and increases every year until 2020.

Currently, sewer charges equal water charges on the water bill.  The rates below will apply to each 1,000 gallons of water & sewer usage.  However, for computation, the rates below are cumulative of both water and sewer.  In other words, the $.59 per thousand gallons is actually $.295 applied to water and $.295 applied to sewer.  The actual wording of the ordinance is different but these are the effective rates:

• 2017: $.59/1000 gallons
• 2018: $1.28/1000 gallons
• 2019: $2.01//1000 gallons
• 2020: $2.51/1000 gallons

The water and sewer tax was one of the few options that the City had to address the immediate pension shortfall that did not need action in from the Illinois General Assembly.