Why will my water bill be higher next year?

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — Water rates in the city of Rockford will be increasing by 9% in 2025.

Rockford's Finance and Personnel Committee met Tuesday night to discuss the Fee Schedule Increases for the 2025 budget. One major increase will be water rates.

The city's financial director Carrie Hagerty said with rising demands for infrastructure reinvestment, this increase is to help fix lead service line replacements and to continue providing clean, safe water to residents.

"There are much higher water rates in other parts of the state," Hagerty said. "We're lucky in Rockford. We have a great source of groundwater here, so we're able to provide of a really competitive rate for the water we provide, but it does cost money to make sure that that continues to be safe."

Hagerty said the rates will be higher for commercial businesses compared to residential areas.

"What 9% looks like, though, for a typical residential customer, is very different than a high-use industrial customer," Hagerty said.

Rate increases could look like this:

The solid waste collection service fee will also increase by $2 a month. First Ward Alderman Tim Durkee said though these prices seem intimidating, the new prices help keep property taxes flat.

"It [water and garbage] goes up because of our increased costs," Durkee said. "This is a user fee. It's one of the mechanisms that we can keep our property taxes more and more in check rather than taxing everybody to pay for the certain fees."

Durkee said residents tend to complain about price increases, but Durkee said Aldermen have to deal with them, too.

"It's not like anybody is jumping up and down to raise fees and taxes because we pay them, too," Durkee said.

As for who may be directly affected, Hagerty said the bigger the commercial user, the more they will pay.

"Larger consumers have larger meters, so they pay more for the service," Hagerty said. "They pay for the water they consume too, but their base charge is a little bit higher. It costs more to get that water to them. For a normal resident, we don't anticipate a massive increase for them, a few dollars a month at most."

The committee approved the agenda item, and it will be sent to full council to be voted on next week.

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