February Freeze Costs Still being Assessed, Relief Sought

Governor Mike Parson made a special supplemental budget request to the Missouri legislature on April 9 that could have a measurable local impact. The budget request was for $50 million intended to create an emergency 0% loan fund to relieve the burden that energy providers are still scrambling to shoulder from the 10-day weather event in February. 
In Willow Springs, the City was expecting to have to finance more than $625,000 in additional energy costs for that single week. The City planned to share these additional costs with individual utility customers. 
Instead of the answers she expected to present at the April City Council meeting, City Administrator Beverly Hicks announced that the City’s energy provider will not have true figures for the cost of the February freeze until the summer, though there is some concern the true cost will be even higher than the $740,000 estimated in March, so the path forward, and the impact to consumers remains unclear. 
Despite the remaining uncertainty about this enormous financial burden, Hicks is cautiously optimistic that state government’s intervention will, at the least, provide more time to consider options, or, at the most, affect cost recovery and/or forgiveness of the exorbitant charges. 
“There’s not a city that has not reached out to their legislator about this issue,” Hicks said.
For now, the governor’s request for the creation of a 0% loan program is a much more tenable solution than the loan obtained on the City’s behalf by the Missouri Public Utility Alliance (MPUA) at 1.3% interest. If no better options appear, the City can expect to pay this loan back over the next 24 months at a rate of $26,490 a month. Pending the creation of the loan program, MPUA is currently holding the bag for the twelve municipalities it represents.
Ultimately, Hicks said the City hopes to shield utility customers from the impact of these costs, but whether that will be possible remains to be seen.

Howell County News

110 W. Main St.,
Willow Springs, MO 65793
417-252-2123

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