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Illinois officials recommend gas price increase for 4.1M consumers

1 year 5 months ago
Utility customers throughout Illinois will likely see higher natural gas bills beginning in January after staff at the state’s utility regulatory agency recommended rate increases for four gas companies. Those recommendations – made by administrative judges at the Illinois Commerce Commission – next go to the appointed five-member commission itself. Over the next two months, the ICC will weigh whether to approve rate hikes for the 4.1 million customers of Ameren Illinois, Nicor Gas, Peoples…
Andrew Adams

St. Louis County Council approves property tax freeze for seniors

1 year 5 months ago
The St. Louis County Council on Tuesday passed a bill to freeze property taxes for senior homeowners. The bill passed 4-2 at the council's regular meeting, with one council member absent. It now awaits the signature of the St. Louis County Executive Sam Page.  The bill would freeze property tax increases for homeowners 67 and over whose homes are worth $550,000 or less.  This comes as the county considers tax hikes and spending cuts amid a $25.8 million budget hole. According to the St. Louis…
Kelsi Anderson, Mark Maxwell

Proposed Missouri silica sand mine loses appeal of its denied permit

1 year 5 months ago
A plan to build a silica mine in southeast Missouri suffered yet another setback on Tuesday when an appeals court ruled state regulators were within their authority to deny the project a permit.  The Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District sided with the Missouri Mining Commission, which denied NexGen Silica a permit in January because it submitted an incomplete application.  “NexGen’s permit application did not identify all parties with any interest in the land and did not contain…
Allison Kite

Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher fires his chief of staff

1 year 5 months ago
Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher fired his chief of staff on Tuesday —  just weeks after the Republican lawmaker was accused by nonpartisan legislative employees of unlawful conduct. In a letter to legislators, Plocher announced that the chief of staff position in his office is vacant effective immediately. Up until Tuesday, that job had been held by Kenny Ross, who has served as chief of staff to the last three Republican speakers — Todd Richardson, Elijah Haahr and Rob Vescovo. There…
Jason Hancock