Non-profit organizations received free water for years until Chicago began billing them this year, upon the passage of Mayor Emanuel’s first budget.
Now, non-profit organizations with assets exceeding $250 million pay for water. Those with assets below $250 million receive a discount of 60 percent. Next year, that discount will fall to 40 percent. Finally, in 2014 it will drop to and remain at 20 percent.
The mayor’s resistance stands in opposition to a proposed ordinance backed by more than half of the city’s aldermen. That ordinance calls for free water service to smaller non-profits in the city that provide charitable, moral, health, education, safety or similar social services, according to the report. Those organizations would then be required to implement water conservation plans.
The mayor has asked his staff to study the proposed ordinance, although he maintained the current policy is fair, according to the report.
“I didn’t think it was fair to the taxpayers of the city of Chicago and the residents to pay full freight, and then in addition to paying full freight, subsidize the non-profits, especially the hospitals, when they were paying pretty big salaries to people,” Mayor Emanuel said in the report.
More Articles on Non-Profit Hospitals:
Fitch: Non-Profit Hospitals May See Some Stability in 2013
Charity Care and Property Taxes: Why They Are Now Inseparable
AHA Presses Congress to Preserve Charitable Tax Deduction
