My thoughts on the idea of utility fees:
Utility fees are a much fairer way to tax residents for the services they use that property taxes. Property taxes affect only residential and commercial property owners. They do not affect the non-profits, like the huge mega institutions like Bradley University, the three hospitals and other big charities.
It’s time these institutions pay for the services and benefits they receive from operating in the city of Peoria, like police and fire protection. And they can’t plead poverty. Most of whom are run like businesses and who pay their top employees huge salaries.
The discussion now is to use utility fees to close a gap in the budget. In ordinary English, the means the city is wants to spend more money providing services that it currently has coming in.
Here’s the problem: Instead of creating new utility fees to prop up the budget, we should have instituted them four years ago, then lowered the property tax levy by a proportional amount. Sure, utility bills would go up, but with the non-profits finally paying their fair share, the hike in the utility bills would be more than offset by the decrease in property taxes.
Instead, we’ll now get a hike in utility bills, with no offsetting decrease in property taxes. And once the recession ends in a few years, and we start getting more sales taxes and corporate taxes, we’ll probably never get rid of the new taxes.
And I still think the city ought to consider doing what is done in Providence, RI, and slap a tax on college admissions.
Tags: Peoria City Council, Taxes, utility tax
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
Only if they tax the churches too, Bill. Imagine what kind of dough Northwoods would bring in.
Richard Pryor had the right answer when a Journal Star reporter asked him years ago if he had a message for Peorians. He did: “Leave.”
When you tax something, you discourage it. The not for profits hospital/university are holding up our local economy right now. They are paying their fair share by expanding job creation when other sectors of our economy are contracting.
We should tax law suits or contingency fees filed in the city since they produce little economic gain or societal value. Discouraging litigation in Peoria won’t inpact the job makers of our community and raise needed funds.
Do cities have the power to tax this sort of thing? If so, that might be something to consider. But would the local bar fight it, since it would mean less work for them?