Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Politics / Clout City Mayor Emanuel jacks up Misericordia's water bills
Posted by Ben Joravsky on 12.06.11 at 11:30 AM
It happened at last week's breakfast fund-raiser for Misericordia, the north-side home for the disabled that Sister Connelly runs.
I didn't make the gathering. But it was like I was there cause I read Abdon Pallasch's very funny account in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Great job, Abdon. Hey, Bright One—give that man a raise!
Sister Connelly started off talking about the time Mayor Emanuel hit her with the s word. It happened at—well, let's let Connelly/Pallasch tell the story . . .
"`Every time I met Rahm in public, he told me he was afraid of me,' Connelly said. `The last time I met him right before the inauguration, he said, and I quote—please remember the bad word used is his not mine—"You scare me s-h-i-t-l-e-s-s,"' Connelly said, spelling out the last word of the quote."
According to Pallasch, the crowd "roared with laughter."
In retrospect, I think Sister Connelly got off kind of easy. At least Mayor Emanuel didn't tell her—"fuck you!"—like he did to Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union.
Perhaps Mayor Rahm still has enough restraint to refrain from dropping the f-bomb on a nun.
The sister went on to point out that despite supposedly being so afraid of her, Mayor Emanuel did away with the water bill exemption not-for-profits, like Misericordia, used to get.
"To show you how courageous this man is, despite his fear, he is going to charge Misericordia for water, which will add to our projected $13 million debt. We are one of the top users of water in Chicago. You see, we are very clean. The 610 children and adults along with the staff who live here use much water, especially those who are non-ambulatory and can do nothing for themselves. Sometimes we have to bathe them several times a day."
I feel your pain, Sister Connelly. My own humble little water-sewer bill has gone up from $328 in 2007 to $502 this year. Thanks to Mayor Emanuel's latest water-sewer hike I'll probably be paying an estimated $1,000 in 2017.
Oh, and did I mention that the City Council unanimously voted for Mayor E's water-sewer hike? Well, they did.
Why is the water-sewer bill going up so much? As Mick and I explained, at least $75 million in water and sewer funds pays for stuff that has nothing to do with water or sewer. Mick and I call this the water and sewer slush fund.
As opposed to the TIF slush fund, which pays for stuff like, oh just to pick one example, $15 million to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
I know it seems cruel to jack up the water bills on homes for the disabled—and schlubs like me—while doling out millions to millionaires.
This is what passes for reform in Mayor Emanuel's Chicago.
Comments (7)
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You're wrong on this one, Ben. Nonprofits should not be exempted from paying water bills simply because they are nonprofits. You were right to complain about the citywide water bill hike when much of the money is being used for other things. But this isn't simply about a hike in rates. This is about fairness. Nonprofits should not have any more entitlement to get breaks as everyone else. Misericordia, of course, is a sympathetic organization that people will be more likely to look at as a victim. But there are other people living with disabilities who are not at nonprofit organizations. They may be living at home, for example. Why should they or anyone else have to pay higher rates while nonprofit organizations, not all of them as sympathetic as Misericordia, get a complete break.
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dislikeI don't get it. How, logically, does $15million in TIF funds have any effect on sewer funds? Yes, we should demand that the City release the TIF funds to public works or even make that TIF accounting transparent. But that in no way means that we should give 501c(3) organizations free water.
They are already tax-exempt. They should at least pay for the infrastructure they use. I don't see ComEd giving them free electricity or People's Gas giving them free gas just because they're a non-profit. Under what yardstick should we be giving free to people that arguably pay nothing back into the infrastructure? If the City were working under a budget surplus, then, yes, I'd support free water and sewer for non-profits, but I don't want a church to get free water in exchange for less police or firefighters.
I get, and respect, the desire to provide free services to the needy, but the practical economics of our situation means we need to find better ways to develop revenue, cut costs, and spend smartly.
How else can u pay Walsh Construction $34 million dollars for Water Managements Jardine Flitration plants roof? Maybe Alderman Waguespack will ask for a forensic audit! Yeah .....and Santa Claus is real.
It's sort of telling when "independent" Aldermen like Waguespack and Cappleman start running for Ward Committeeman. And I'd be willing to comp the nonprofits on water, it's not like we have a shortage of it in this town.
Of course non-profits should receive free or at least deeply discounted agua. They are doing the work that gov't can't effectively do, and that business cannot profit from doing.
The whole idea of non-profits is that they contribute by providing services, not tax dollars or fee-tax dollars. The real question here is not whether a schlub pays more, but how many Misericordia patients get thrown under the bus to pay the Rahm/aldermen tax.
Is that worth the savings to society? If you knew that child's name would it still be worth it? If that child were yours would it still be worth it?
