2024/04/02 - Mayor's Column: Tax and Utility Rates
“AN OPEN DOOR TO O’FALLON”
A WEEKLY NOTE FROM MAYOR HERB ROACH
I’m happy to announce that the city has been able to reduce your Real Estate Tax Rate for the City of O’Fallon to the lowest rate that it has been in 40 years. With this reduction, we will have been able to lower the tax rate for the 6th straight year. It is the first time in over 45+ years that the city has reduced its tax rate for 6 consecutive years.
If you look at your property tax bill, only about 10% to 11% of your real estate taxes go to the city for city services.
Several years ago, as a member of the City Council, I fought against a proposed plan to sell our water and sewer to private water companies. I did so after talking with over 12 cities that had done so in the past. They explained to me the negative impact that it was having on them. They saw lower service and less flexibility in servicing both current and future users.
Well, now we have some real proof of what they told me could happen.
We recently did a survey of water and sewer rates of 16 other nearby communities. The five cities that have American Illinois Water for their water department also have the 5 highest water rates of all the cities.
Two of those cities use American Illinois Water for both their sewer and water service. Their charges were the highest of any of the cities surveyed in both water and sewer and they were 33% higher than our rate.
And another utility charge that we have is our Electric Rates. Several years ago, as a Council Member I proposed that we join with other cities to see if we could negotiate lower electrical rates. For years we were able to negotiate lower rates for our citizens and save millions of dollars. Then a year ago, Ameren lowered its rate for the first time in over seven years below what we could negotiate.
Well, I’m happy to say that it looks like our Director of Finance’s continued work may have come up with a lower rate again than Ameren for electric. This new rate would go into effect when our current contract expires in January of 2025. We will let you know more about this as it develops.
In the meantime, both American Water and Ameren are asking the state for the ability to increase their current rates.
As residents of O’Fallon, you should always be able to reach out to your elected officials and ask questions about what is happening in O’Fallon. Having open communications is important to me and something I care very deeply about. Thank you for reading, and please remember, my door is always open.