Defeat HB 4508: A bad water bill increasing our high cost of water

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Contact Illinois State Reps. and Senators, telling them no to the bill raising our already excessive water bills.

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Defeat HB 4508: A bad water bill

• House Bill 4508 would renew legislation passed five years ago that helps the state’s two biggest private water companies—Aqua Illinois and Illinois American Water—bankroll the purchase of municipal water systems. This bill also repeals any limits on the size of systems that the water utilities can buy.
  
• HB 4508 would allow these companies to automatically raise their existing customers’ rates to fund municipal acquisitions—by 2.5 percent for one acquisition, or a total of 5 percent for multiple acquisitions.
  
• Of course, municipal systems raise their prices too—but they don’t have the profit motive of these private companies. Illinois American recently secured an excessive profit rate for shareholders of nearly 10 percent in a case before state regulators. One analysis of Illinois American’s parent company says it has “crushed the market” in recent years and pursued a “fairly aggressive” buying strategy.

The bottom line: This bill makes powerful corporations even more powerful as they march across the state to buy up municipal water systems.

Please tell your representative: Vote NO on HB 4508!