When created by legislative action, the DuPage Water Commission was intended to serve two primary roles. The first was to build the critical water infrastructure of DuPage County over several decades through bonding. The commission was granted sales tax authority and levied a 0.25 percent sales tax to finance the massive public infrastructure project. The commission’s second role was to purchase and distribute water to communities throughout the region, to be sustained through ongoing operations.

In April 2010, accounting irregularities were uncovered at the commission— they had inadvertently spent $69 million in reserve funds.

The Chamber’s Legislative Committee understood an important issue was at hand and was briefed on a reform proposal by then-Sen. Dan Cronin (Cronin was elected DuPage County Board Chairman in November 2010).

The Chamber’s board of directors was the first organization to publicly support the repeal of the 0.25 percent sales tax. The General Assembly and governor agreed, and the tax is scheduled to sunset in 2013. The Chamber conservatively estimates this will save taxpayers, businesses and consumers more than $400 million within 10 years of repeal.