Jamie Munks
The State Journal-Register
City Water, Light and Power is one step closer to avoiding a technical default.
The city-owned utility emerged from the summer needing to make up an $8 million deficit to avoid its second technical default in four years, which city officials said would have created some significant obstacles moving forward.
But judging by the electric fund finances through the end of January, it looks like the utility will avoid default — and without cutting back on payments in lieu of taxes from CWLP to the city’s corporate fund. The figures through January showed the electric fund meeting its required debt-coverage ratio. The utility drew more wholesale electric fund revenue than anticipated this winter, which helped bridge the gap.
The city council last month authorized the waiving of the January and February PILOT payments from the utility to the city’s corporate fund, an effort to avoid a technical default if the remaining revenue for the year were to come up short. The fiscal year ended Feb. 28, but the figures for February haven’t yet been finalized.
“That’s a significant turnaround than what we thought would happen last summer,” Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin said, “and it’s no doubt attributable to management’s involvement in controlling expenses and trying to maximize revenue.”
See more at: http://www.sj-r.com/article/20150322/NEWS/150329852/0/SEARCH
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 