Full Text of SB1952 98th General Assembly
SB1952 98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
| | 98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2013 and 2014 SB1952 Introduced 2/15/2013, by Sen. Kimberly A. Lightford SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED: |
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Amends the Energy Assistance Act. In a provision concerning the Supplemental Low-Income Energy Assistance Fund and the monthly Energy Assistance Charge, provides that the provision is repealed effective December 31, 2023 (rather than effective December 31, 2013) unless
renewed by action of the General Assembly.
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| | | FISCAL NOTE ACT MAY APPLY | |
| | A BILL FOR |
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| 1 | | AN ACT concerning public aid.
| 2 | | Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
| 3 | | represented in the General Assembly:
| 4 | | Section 5. The Energy Assistance Act is amended by changing | 5 | | Section 13 as follows:
| 6 | | (305 ILCS 20/13)
| 7 | | (Section scheduled to be repealed on December 31, 2013) | 8 | | Sec. 13. Supplemental Low-Income Energy Assistance Fund.
| 9 | | (a) The Supplemental Low-Income Energy Assistance
Fund is | 10 | | hereby created as a special fund in the State
Treasury. The | 11 | | Supplemental Low-Income Energy Assistance Fund
is authorized | 12 | | to receive moneys from voluntary donations from individuals, | 13 | | foundations, corporations, and other sources, moneys received | 14 | | pursuant to Section 17, and, by statutory deposit, the moneys
| 15 | | collected pursuant to this Section. The Fund is also authorized | 16 | | to receive voluntary donations from individuals, foundations, | 17 | | corporations, and other sources, as well as contributions made | 18 | | in accordance with Section 507MM of the Illinois Income Tax | 19 | | Act. Subject to appropriation,
the Department shall use
moneys | 20 | | from the Supplemental Low-Income Energy Assistance Fund
for | 21 | | payments to electric or gas public utilities,
municipal | 22 | | electric or gas utilities, and electric cooperatives
on behalf | 23 | | of their customers who are participants in the
program |
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| 1 | | authorized by Sections 4 and 18 of this Act, for the provision | 2 | | of
weatherization services and for
administration of the | 3 | | Supplemental Low-Income Energy
Assistance Fund. The yearly | 4 | | expenditures for weatherization may not exceed 10%
of the | 5 | | amount collected during the year pursuant to this Section. The | 6 | | yearly administrative expenses of the
Supplemental Low-Income | 7 | | Energy Assistance Fund may not exceed
10% of the amount | 8 | | collected during that year
pursuant to this Section.
| 9 | | (b) Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 16-111
of the | 10 | | Public Utilities Act but subject to subsection (k) of this | 11 | | Section,
each public utility, electric
cooperative, as defined | 12 | | in Section 3.4 of the Electric Supplier Act,
and municipal | 13 | | utility, as referenced in Section 3-105 of the Public Utilities
| 14 | | Act, that is engaged in the delivery of electricity or the
| 15 | | distribution of natural gas within the State of Illinois
shall, | 16 | | effective January 1, 1998,
assess each of
its customer accounts | 17 | | a monthly Energy Assistance Charge for
the Supplemental | 18 | | Low-Income Energy Assistance Fund.
The delivering public | 19 | | utility, municipal electric or gas utility, or electric
or gas
| 20 | | cooperative for a self-assessing purchaser remains subject to | 21 | | the collection of
the
fee imposed by this Section.
The
monthly | 22 | | charge shall be as follows:
| 23 | | (1) $0.48 per month on each account for
residential | 24 | | electric service;
| 25 | | (2) $0.48 per month on each account for
residential gas | 26 | | service;
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| 1 | | (3) $4.80 per month on each account for non-residential | 2 | | electric service
which had less than 10 megawatts
of peak | 3 | | demand during the previous calendar year;
| 4 | | (4) $4.80 per month on each account for non-residential | 5 | | gas service which
had distributed to it less than
4,000,000 | 6 | | therms of gas during the previous calendar year;
| 7 | | (5) $360 per month on each account for non-residential | 8 | | electric service
which had 10 megawatts or greater
of peak | 9 | | demand during the previous calendar year; and
| 10 | | (6) $360 per month on each account for non-residential | 11 | | gas service
which had 4,000,000 or more therms of
gas | 12 | | distributed to it during the previous calendar year. | 13 | | The incremental change to such charges imposed by this | 14 | | amendatory Act of the 96th General Assembly shall not (i) be | 15 | | used for any purpose other than to directly assist customers | 16 | | and (ii) be applicable to utilities serving less than 100,000 | 17 | | customers in Illinois on January 1, 2009. | 18 | | In addition, electric and gas utilities have committed, and | 19 | | shall contribute, a one-time payment of $22 million to the | 20 | | Fund, within 10 days after the effective date of the tariffs | 21 | | established pursuant to Sections 16-111.8 and 19-145 of the | 22 | | Public Utilities Act to be used for the Department's cost of | 23 | | implementing the programs described in Section 18 of this | 24 | | amendatory Act of the 96th General Assembly, the Arrearage | 25 | | Reduction Program described in Section 18, and the programs | 26 | | described in Section 8-105 of the Public Utilities Act. If a |
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| 1 | | utility elects not to file a rider within 90 days after the | 2 | | effective date of this amendatory Act of the 96th General | 3 | | Assembly, then the contribution from such utility shall be made | 4 | | no later than February 1, 2010.
| 5 | | (c) For purposes of this Section:
| 6 | | (1) "residential electric service" means
electric | 7 | | utility service for household purposes delivered to a
| 8 | | dwelling of 2 or fewer units which is billed under a
| 9 | | residential rate, or electric utility service for | 10 | | household
purposes delivered to a dwelling unit or units | 11 | | which is billed
under a residential rate and is registered | 12 | | by a separate meter
for each dwelling unit;
| 13 | | (2) "residential gas service" means gas utility
| 14 | | service for household purposes distributed to a dwelling of
| 15 | | 2 or fewer units which is billed under a residential rate,
| 16 | | or gas utility service for household purposes distributed | 17 | | to a
dwelling unit or units which is billed under a | 18 | | residential
rate and is registered by a separate meter for | 19 | | each dwelling
unit;
| 20 | | (3) "non-residential electric service" means
electric | 21 | | utility service which is not residential electric
service; | 22 | | and
| 23 | | (4) "non-residential gas service" means gas
utility | 24 | | service which is not residential gas service.
| 25 | | (d) Within 30 days after the effective date of this | 26 | | amendatory Act of the 96th General Assembly, each public
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| 1 | | utility engaged in the delivery of electricity or the
| 2 | | distribution of natural gas shall file with the Illinois
| 3 | | Commerce Commission tariffs incorporating the Energy
| 4 | | Assistance Charge in other charges stated in such tariffs, | 5 | | which shall become effective no later than the beginning of the | 6 | | first billing cycle following such filing.
| 7 | | (e) The Energy Assistance Charge assessed by
electric and | 8 | | gas public utilities shall be considered a charge
for public | 9 | | utility service.
| 10 | | (f) By the 20th day of the month following the month in | 11 | | which the charges
imposed by the Section were collected, each | 12 | | public
utility,
municipal utility, and electric cooperative | 13 | | shall remit to the
Department of Revenue all moneys received as | 14 | | payment of the
Energy Assistance Charge on a return prescribed | 15 | | and furnished by the
Department of Revenue showing such | 16 | | information as the Department of Revenue may
reasonably | 17 | | require; provided, however, that a utility offering an | 18 | | Arrearage Reduction Program pursuant to Section 18 of this Act | 19 | | shall be entitled to net those amounts necessary to fund and | 20 | | recover the costs of such Program as authorized by that Section | 21 | | that is no more than the incremental change in such Energy | 22 | | Assistance Charge authorized by this amendatory Act of the 96th | 23 | | General Assembly. If a customer makes a partial payment, a | 24 | | public
utility, municipal
utility, or electric cooperative may | 25 | | elect either: (i) to apply
such partial payments first to | 26 | | amounts owed to the
utility or cooperative for its services and |
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| 1 | | then to payment
for the Energy Assistance Charge or (ii) to | 2 | | apply such partial payments
on a pro-rata basis between amounts | 3 | | owed to the
utility or cooperative for its services and to | 4 | | payment for the
Energy Assistance Charge.
| 5 | | (g) The Department of Revenue shall deposit into the
| 6 | | Supplemental Low-Income Energy Assistance Fund all moneys
| 7 | | remitted to it in accordance with subsection (f) of this
| 8 | | Section; provided, however, that the amounts remitted by each | 9 | | utility shall be used to provide assistance to that utility's | 10 | | customers. The utilities shall coordinate with the Department | 11 | | to establish an equitable and practical methodology for | 12 | | implementing this subsection (g) beginning with the 2010 | 13 | | program year.
| 14 | | (h) On or before December 31, 2002, the Department shall
| 15 | | prepare a report for the General Assembly on the expenditure of | 16 | | funds
appropriated from the Low-Income Energy Assistance Block | 17 | | Grant Fund for the
program authorized under Section 4 of this | 18 | | Act.
| 19 | | (i) The Department of Revenue may establish such
rules as | 20 | | it deems necessary to implement this Section.
| 21 | | (j) The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity
may | 22 | | establish such rules as it deems necessary to implement
this | 23 | | Section.
| 24 | | (k) The charges imposed by this Section shall only apply to | 25 | | customers of
municipal electric or gas utilities and electric | 26 | | or gas cooperatives if
the municipal
electric or gas
utility or |
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| 1 | | electric or gas cooperative makes an affirmative decision to
| 2 | | impose the
charge. If a municipal electric or gas utility or an | 3 | | electric
cooperative makes an affirmative decision to impose | 4 | | the charge provided by
this
Section, the municipal electric or | 5 | | gas utility or electric cooperative shall
inform the
Department | 6 | | of Revenue in writing of such decision when it begins to impose | 7 | | the
charge. If a municipal electric or gas utility or electric | 8 | | or gas
cooperative does not
assess
this charge, the Department | 9 | | may not use funds from the Supplemental Low-Income
Energy | 10 | | Assistance Fund to provide benefits to its customers under the | 11 | | program
authorized by Section 4 of this Act.
| 12 | | In its use of federal funds under this Act, the Department | 13 | | may not cause a
disproportionate share of those federal funds | 14 | | to benefit customers of systems
which do not assess the charge | 15 | | provided by this Section.
| 16 | | This Section is repealed effective December 31, 2023 2013
| 17 | | unless
renewed by action of the General Assembly. The General | 18 | | Assembly shall
consider the results of the evaluations | 19 | | described in Section 8 in its
deliberations.
| 20 | | (Source: P.A. 95-48, eff. 8-10-07; 95-331, eff. 8-21-07; 96-33, | 21 | | eff. 7-10-09; 96-154, eff. 1-1-10; 96-1000, eff. 7-2-10.)
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