Lightfoot’s pledge to get tough with utilities comes at a cost – Crain’s

Consumers may foot the bill for concessions City Hall may squeeze out of utilities with its newfound muscle. Asked about what she'd like to see in the negotiations, Lightfoot recently said she supports an end to shut-offs for those delinquent on their electric bills. She said the same for Peoples Gas and its rising heating bills as well. Both utilities pass along to paying customers the cost of customer debt they write off.

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Illinois Entrepreneur
6 years ago

This article is full of all kinds of gems. For those that can’t access it, the basics are what you think (my editorializing): 1. The city wants to clandestinely socialize the cost of utility bills by ending all disconnections and ‘extracting’ further concessions from the utilities. 2. However, any bad debt is paid by…yes the people who actually pay the bills, not the utilities. 3. This, some sages worry, will lead to further bad debt, as people realize there are no consequences to not paying for their utilities. 4. The utilities are “a-ok” with it all, because they are just… Read more »

debtsor
6 years ago

And the progressives point to the Chicago Water Dept. as an example of government controlled utilities. We live next to the largest deposit of freshwater in the world yet our water rates are exorbitantly high, and continue to increase, and the infrastructure to deliver it is crumbing. The water dept. is subsidized, in part, by Chicago selling its water to suburbs for exorbitantly high rates, to gloss over the expense of its corruption and incompetence. Unfortunately for the neo-socialists in the Chicago City Council, Chicago does not and cannot sell it’s electricity to neighboring towns to cover over its losses.… Read more »

km
6 years ago

If one cannot read the story without subscribing, it shouldn’t be posted on Wirepoints a free site.

debtsor
6 years ago
Reply to  km

check the reader mode button in the address bar of your browser, or, quickly reload and stop the reload after the article shows up but before the paywall appears.

Illinois Entrepreneur
6 years ago
Reply to  km

I respectfully disagree.

I subscribe to Crain’s, and since they don’t allow comments any longer, I like to see what Wirepoints readers have to say.

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