Amid all the legislative action in Springfield, big water companies snuck in a measure that will hurt Illinois consumers for years to come.
House Bill 1379 passed the General Assembly and could be signed by Gov. Pat Quinn any day now. The measure would allow Aqua Illinois and Illinois American Water—the state’s biggest water companies—to:
-Fast-track takeovers of municipal water systems.
-Sidestep the traditional 11-month process water companies must follow to ask for higher rates.
-Fund their purchases of municipal water systems by automatically raising their existing customers’ rates by 2.5 percent for one acquisition, or a total of 5 percent for multiple acquisitions.
The Public Utilities Act requires that acquisitions of municipal water systems not have an “adverse rate impact” on consumers, but HB 1379 throws that notion out the window.
Aqua and Illinois American could impose automatic rate hikes on customers to fund their money-making conquests. Those increases would be automatic—completely sidestepping consumer protections in the regulatory process.
Please use CUB’s Action Network to ask Gov. Quinn to veto HB 1379. The bill is on his desk, waiting for his signature—so please send a message right now, and tell your friends to do the same!