Full Text of SB0418 99th General Assembly
SB0418eng 99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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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| 7 | | (Section scheduled to be repealed on December 31, 2018) | 8 | | Sec. 13.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 , | 6 | | except that amounts in excess of 10% collected in a given year | 7 | | may be expended from the Fund if they represent funds from | 8 | | previous years or if they represent amounts deposited into the | 9 | | Fund from the Energy Efficiency Portfolio Program . The yearly | 10 | | administrative expenses of the
Supplemental Low-Income Energy | 11 | | Assistance Fund may not exceed
10% of the amount collected | 12 | | during that year
pursuant to this Section , except when unspent | 13 | | funds from the Supplemental Low-Income Energy Assistance Fund | 14 | | are reallocated from a previous year; up to 10% of those | 15 | | reallocated funds may be spent in the year they are | 16 | | reallocated .
| 17 | | (b) Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 16-111
of the | 18 | | Public Utilities Act but subject to subsection (k) of this | 19 | | Section,
each public utility, electric
cooperative, as defined | 20 | | in Section 3.4 of the Electric Supplier Act,
and municipal | 21 | | utility, as referenced in Section 3-105 of the Public Utilities
| 22 | | Act, that is engaged in the delivery of electricity or the
| 23 | | distribution of natural gas within the State of Illinois
shall, | 24 | | effective January 1, 1998,
assess each of
its customer accounts | 25 | | a monthly Energy Assistance Charge for
the Supplemental | 26 | | Low-Income Energy Assistance Fund.
The delivering public |
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| 1 | | utility, municipal electric or gas utility, or electric
or gas
| 2 | | cooperative for a self-assessing purchaser remains subject to | 3 | | the collection of
the
fee imposed by this Section.
The
monthly | 4 | | charge shall be as follows:
| 5 | | (1) $0.48 per month on each account for
residential | 6 | | electric service;
| 7 | | (2) $0.48 per month on each account for
residential gas | 8 | | service;
| 9 | | (3) $4.80 per month on each account for non-residential | 10 | | electric service
which had less than 10 megawatts
of peak | 11 | | demand during the previous calendar year;
| 12 | | (4) $4.80 per month on each account for non-residential | 13 | | gas service which
had distributed to it less than
4,000,000 | 14 | | therms of gas during the previous calendar year;
| 15 | | (5) $360 per month on each account for non-residential | 16 | | electric service
which had 10 megawatts or greater
of peak | 17 | | demand during the previous calendar year; and
| 18 | | (6) $360 per month on each account for non-residential | 19 | | gas service
which had 4,000,000 or more therms of
gas | 20 | | distributed to it during the previous calendar year. | 21 | | The incremental change to such charges imposed by this | 22 | | amendatory Act of the 96th General Assembly shall not (i) be | 23 | | used for any purpose other than to directly assist customers | 24 | | and (ii) be applicable to utilities serving less than 100,000 | 25 | | customers in Illinois on January 1, 2009. | 26 | | In addition, electric and gas utilities have committed, and |
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| 1 | | shall contribute, a one-time payment of $22 million to the | 2 | | Fund, within 10 days after the effective date of the tariffs | 3 | | established pursuant to Sections 16-111.8 and 19-145 of the | 4 | | Public Utilities Act to be used for the Department's cost of | 5 | | implementing the programs described in Section 18 of this | 6 | | amendatory Act of the 96th General Assembly, the Arrearage | 7 | | Reduction Program described in Section 18, and the programs | 8 | | described in Section 8-105 of the Public Utilities Act. If a | 9 | | utility elects not to file a rider within 90 days after the | 10 | | effective date of this amendatory Act of the 96th General | 11 | | Assembly, then the contribution from such utility shall be made | 12 | | no later than February 1, 2010.
| 13 | | (c) For purposes of this Section:
| 14 | | (1) "residential electric service" means
electric | 15 | | utility service for household purposes delivered to a
| 16 | | dwelling of 2 or fewer units which is billed under a
| 17 | | residential rate, or electric utility service for | 18 | | household
purposes delivered to a dwelling unit or units | 19 | | which is billed
under a residential rate and is registered | 20 | | by a separate meter
for each dwelling unit;
| 21 | | (2) "residential gas service" means gas utility
| 22 | | service for household purposes distributed to a dwelling of
| 23 | | 2 or fewer units which is billed under a residential rate,
| 24 | | or gas utility service for household purposes distributed | 25 | | to a
dwelling unit or units which is billed under a | 26 | | residential
rate and is registered by a separate meter for |
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| 1 | | each dwelling
unit;
| 2 | | (3) "non-residential electric service" means
electric | 3 | | utility service which is not residential electric
service; | 4 | | and
| 5 | | (4) "non-residential gas service" means gas
utility | 6 | | service which is not residential gas service.
| 7 | | (d) Within 30 days after the effective date of this | 8 | | amendatory Act of the 96th General Assembly, each public
| 9 | | utility engaged in the delivery of electricity or the
| 10 | | distribution of natural gas shall file with the Illinois
| 11 | | Commerce Commission tariffs incorporating the Energy
| 12 | | Assistance Charge in other charges stated in such tariffs, | 13 | | which shall become effective no later than the beginning of the | 14 | | first billing cycle following such filing.
| 15 | | (e) The Energy Assistance Charge assessed by
electric and | 16 | | gas public utilities shall be considered a charge
for public | 17 | | utility service.
| 18 | | (f) By the 20th day of the month following the month in | 19 | | which the charges
imposed by the Section were collected, each | 20 | | public
utility,
municipal utility, and electric cooperative | 21 | | shall remit to the
Department of Revenue all moneys received as | 22 | | payment of the
Energy Assistance Charge on a return prescribed | 23 | | and furnished by the
Department of Revenue showing such | 24 | | information as the Department of Revenue may
reasonably | 25 | | require; provided, however, that a utility offering an | 26 | | Arrearage Reduction Program pursuant to Section 18 of this Act |
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| 1 | | shall be entitled to net those amounts necessary to fund and | 2 | | recover the costs of such Program as authorized by that Section | 3 | | that is no more than the incremental change in such Energy | 4 | | Assistance Charge authorized by this amendatory Act of the 96th | 5 | | General Assembly. If a customer makes a partial payment, a | 6 | | public
utility, municipal
utility, or electric cooperative may | 7 | | elect either: (i) to apply
such partial payments first to | 8 | | amounts owed to the
utility or cooperative for its services and | 9 | | then to payment
for the Energy Assistance Charge or (ii) to | 10 | | apply such partial payments
on a pro-rata basis between amounts | 11 | | owed to the
utility or cooperative for its services and to | 12 | | payment for the
Energy Assistance Charge.
| 13 | | (g) The Department of Revenue shall deposit into the
| 14 | | Supplemental Low-Income Energy Assistance Fund all moneys
| 15 | | remitted to it in accordance with subsection (f) of this
| 16 | | Section; provided, however, that the amounts remitted by each | 17 | | utility shall be used to provide assistance to that utility's | 18 | | customers. The utilities shall coordinate with the Department | 19 | | to establish an equitable and practical methodology for | 20 | | implementing this subsection (g) beginning with the 2010 | 21 | | program year.
| 22 | | (h) On or before December 31, 2002, the Department shall
| 23 | | prepare a report for the General Assembly on the expenditure of | 24 | | funds
appropriated from the Low-Income Energy Assistance Block | 25 | | Grant Fund for the
program authorized under Section 4 of this | 26 | | Act.
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| 1 | | (i) The Department of Revenue may establish such
rules as | 2 | | it deems necessary to implement this Section.
| 3 | | (j) The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity
may | 4 | | establish such rules as it deems necessary to implement
this | 5 | | Section.
| 6 | | (k) The charges imposed by this Section shall only apply to | 7 | | customers of
municipal electric or gas utilities and electric | 8 | | or gas cooperatives if
the municipal
electric or gas
utility or | 9 | | electric or gas cooperative makes an affirmative decision to
| 10 | | impose the
charge. If a municipal electric or gas utility or an | 11 | | electric
cooperative makes an affirmative decision to impose | 12 | | the charge provided by
this
Section, the municipal electric or | 13 | | gas utility or electric cooperative shall
inform the
Department | 14 | | of Revenue in writing of such decision when it begins to impose | 15 | | the
charge. If a municipal electric or gas utility or electric | 16 | | or gas
cooperative does not
assess
this charge, the Department | 17 | | may not use funds from the Supplemental Low-Income
Energy | 18 | | Assistance Fund to provide benefits to its customers under the | 19 | | program
authorized by Section 4 of this Act.
| 20 | | In its use of federal funds under this Act, the Department | 21 | | may not cause a
disproportionate share of those federal funds | 22 | | to benefit customers of systems
which do not assess the charge | 23 | | provided by this Section.
| 24 | | This Section is repealed effective December 31, 2018
unless
| 25 | | renewed by action of the General Assembly. The General Assembly | 26 | | shall
consider the results of the evaluations described in |
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| 1 | | Section 8 in its
deliberations.
| 2 | | (Source: P.A. 98-429, eff. 8-16-13.)
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