Springfield, Ill. (WTAX) – CWLP chief utility engineer Doug Brown asked the Springfield City Council to skip a payment from the water fund into the corporate fund, thus building up a fund which has been, well, underwater for a long time. But he got some pushback Tuesday from Ald. Ralph Hanauer.

“It is a complete waiver of that,” Brown responded, “and the same thing was done in Fiscal Year 23 as well.”

“But I thought when we voted for the water rate increase,” said Hanauer, “part of the sell was that we were going to pay back, because we owe different funds money, we were going to pay those back.”

“It was never said we were going to pay those back with the waiver,” responded Brown. “It was that we were going to go back to paying the payment.”

“That’s not what i – uh-uh. that’s not what my understanding was.”

A vote is next week.