This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

Committee Proposes Water Rate Hike

Increase needed after Chicago, DuPage raise rates

City officials took the first step Monday toward a 20-percent increase in water rates needed to offset costs passed on from both the City of Chicago and the DuPage Water Commission.

, the finance committee learned the DuPage body would be raising rates for its customers by 30 percent in 2012, 20 percent in 2013, 18 percent in 2014 and 17 percent in 2015.

On Monday, the committee studied the issue and noted the rate hikes apply to the water consumption only, not to distribution or administrative costs. Elmhurst Finance Director Marilyn Gaston told the committee that since the increases were taking place only on the commodity itself that the city did not need to pass on the full amount of the increase to residents. This, the committee stressed, was not a subsidy from the city, but simply a reflection of the actual cost of the DuPage Commission's increase.

Find out what's happening in Elmhurstwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

If approved by the full council, residents will see the 20 percent increase on the water portion only of their utility bill.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?