Illinois American Water is trying to raise customer rates, and a watchdog company is not happy about it.
Illinois American Water is requesting to increase wastewater bills by $5 per month and raise water service bills by up to $24 a month per customer.
The company recently got a $557 million water and wastewater investment deal taking them through 2025. Around 1.3 million Illinois residents are Illinois American customers.
The Citizen's Utility Board is trying to reduce this price-change, because the Director of Communications Jim Chilsen says it's greedy.
"We want companies to be reasonably profitable, to be healthy, to be able to maintain their system," said Chilsen on Total Information A.M. "They shouldn't do it in a way to cause customers to have serious problems to afford their bill and let me tell you, we can a lot of calls from Illinois American Customers."
Chilsen says the issue is rather complex, but raising rates is not the answer.
"These are not easy issue," said Chilsen. "But one thing we do know is that the answer is not to give an already wealthy company an excessive rate hike."
