Former Highland Park Mayor: 'Regional Solution and Funding Needed to Address Flooding'

The recent rain event that lead to flooding in Lake County calls out for a regional solution akin to the Deep Tunnel project undertaken by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District or the “Big Dig” in Boston. This will take creativity with respect to organization and funding. The Lake County Storm Water Management Commission has several plans that call for detention basins along different watersheds. The idea is that as rains move east to west they are held in these basins and released slowly to avoid flooding.

The problem is the Commission has little funding to implement these plans and the State has not authorized an adequate and consistent funding source. I have several suggestions for coordination and funding.

One option is to have the communities most effected by flooding establish a joint action agency, which they are allowed to do under state law. An example is the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County.

In turn, these communities should work with the Storm Water Management Commission area drainage and water reclamation districts to adopt a regional plan for mitigating flooding. Funding options can include a surcharge on water and or sewer bills. Another approach could be a surcharge on home owner’s insurance premiums. The latter is used in Florida and California for public insurance companies that are the insurers of last resort for hurricane and earthquake insurance respectively. While these are in place for an after the fact event, their funding source provides a potential model.

The last thing home owners want are higher insurance premiums, but I would argue that pay outs for flooding, where covered, increases everybody’s insurance premiums. The surcharge on water or sewer bills may be more palatable in that it would be incidental to a payment that is already made by homeowners on a regular basis.

In either case there is no such thing as a free lunch. If cities want to keep water out of the streets and out of people’s basements they must act to fund and implement a regional approach in Lake County.

Michael D. Belsky
Mayor of Highland Park (2003-2011)
Executive Director
Center for Municipal Finance
Harris School of Public Policy
University of Chicago