With lawmakers returning to the Capitol on Sunday, House Speaker Michael Madigan will try to turn back new, higher electric rates before the bills hit customers’ mailboxes.
Madigan’s proposal to freeze rates at their previous level is the top item on his agenda when the General Assembly returns for a final hurrah before newly elected members are sworn in Wednesday to begin the next legislative session.
Lawmakers could also take up proposals aimed at giving Cook County residents property-tax relief and giving counties like DuPage the right to raise a cigarette tax up to $2 a pack. But chances of their success are dim. The House also might take up a bill that would fund lawmaker pay raises of more than 15 percent. The bill was scheduled for a committee hearing.
Consumers have yet to feel the bite of the electric-rate increases that took effect this month and will push ComEd residential customer bills up by about 24 percent.
Madigan (D-Chicago) supports a three-year freeze of electricity rates, an extension of a freeze that is nearly a decade old. Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said the speaker hopes the proposal will be voted on Sunday.
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Madigan needs fewer votes than he did when his proposal failed to pass in November, but he still faces opposition from House Republicans and Senate President Emil Jones, a fellow Chicago Democrat.
In a scathing letter Wednesday, Madigan rejected a Senate-approved bill that Jones and House Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego) say would give utility companies a fair increase while lessening the pain for consumers.
Jones’ Senate legislation would limit rate increases for ComEd customers to no more than 7 percent this year and next and 8 percent in 2009.
But Madigan said ratepayers would face a new costly line-item charge on their monthly bills to pay off loans, along with interest, that utilities would take out and then pass along to customers. “To the ratepayer, it is a distinction without a difference,” Madigan wrote.
Further, Madigan charged, the legislation strips oversight from the Illinois Commerce Commission and gives utilities “carte blanche” authority.
Jones spokeswoman Cindy Davidsmeyer said the Senate president disagrees with the Madigan memo.
“This is legislation that provides an affordable phase-in while also ensuring we have reliable electricity,” she said.
The higher rates are the result of last year’s electricity auction, an outgrowth of deregulation previously approved by the legislature.
In December, state regulators approved a plan that allows customers to phase in the sharply higher electric bills over three years, but consumer advocates contended the program does more harm than good.
Rather than face the full hike in their bills this year, ComEd customers instead can choose to pay a maximum of a 10 percent increase in 2007 and an additional 10 percent in 2008 and again in 2009. The actual numbers could be less, depending on future energy auction results.
But money they saved would be paid back over the following three years with annual interest of 3.25 percent.
“ComEd has always been a proponent of phasing in the rate increase to help customers adjust to the increases over time,” ComEd said in a statement. “Although [Jones’ legislation] does not allow for full recovery of our just and reasonable costs and will place a heavy financial burden on us, it is a more reasonable option than a rate-freeze extension, which would immediately put the company on the path to bankruptcy.”
Madigan’s freeze proposal, supported by the Citizens Utility Board, failed in the veto session, where it needed a supermajority vote to pass. The measure only needs a simple majority to pass now.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich supports extending the freeze and is hopeful the General Assembly will act next week, said Rebecca Rausch, his spokeswoman.
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