(CBS) CHICAGO Cooling off with bottled water could soon cost you more within the Chicago city limits if one alderman has his way.

As CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman reports, Ald. George Cardenas (12th) wants to slap a tax of up to 25 cents on the cost of every bottle to help close a $217 million budget gap.

“People enjoy jogging or driving with a bottle of water. There’s a cost associated with this behavior. You have to pay for it,” said Cardenas, one of Mayor Richard M. Daley’s staunchest City Council supporters.

Cardenas noted that there’s a nearly $40 million shortfall in the city’s water and sewer funds, in part because of a decline in water usage.

“How is this possible when we have a water system that’s won honors? It’s because bottled water has become a $15 billion industry that’s growing at a rate of 20 to 30 percent a year,” he said.


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This is the DEMocrat mentality, TAX, TAX, TAX. So your not drinking our water? Well we'll just tax the water you are drinking so we get our part.

Amazing isn't it?

They are going to try and force people to drink the city water or whatever kind of water they have.

Pretty soon there will be TAX upon the TAXED items already.

It's sad how far and how bold these politicans go. They really think they have this right. They don't look at government as a public service, they are looking at it as a profiteering adventure.

You want more people to drink from the municipal water supply.Put a Coke or Pepsi plant in your city and they will run it dry bottling there water and you can stop all this.TAX TAX TAX

The funny thing is, Chicago has great tap water. Great Politicians? not so much.

Would'nt most people just drive out of the city and buy a few
cases of water ever so often? Used to be that way with cigaretts,
people would go to VA and buy them because they were so
much cheaper. What am I missing?