Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Public Utilities members called for a meeting with the Unified Government, saying at Wednesday night’s meeting that the BPU wants to correct “misinformation.”
There is “misinformation” being discussed by UG committee members, according to Rose Mulvany Henry, BPU vice president.
She said that members of a UG committee recently gave a presentation to a local business group, in which the committee members gave out incorrect information about the PILOT fee on the BPU bills.
The PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) fee is an 11.9 percent fee that the UG places on BPU customers’ bills. The BPU has no authority in approving the fee, according to board members.
“Literally, all we do is collect the PILOT fee and remit the fee to the UG,” Mulvany Henry said at the meeting.
The BPU has no say in how the funds are spent. The funds go into the city general fund of the UG, she said. The UG Commission votes on how much the PILOT fee will be every year at budget time. BPU bills are just used to collect the funds for the UG.
At a recent UG Commission meeting, a UG commissioner asked where the PILOT fee on Bonner Springs and Edwardsville residents’ bills go. Any funds collected from there would go back to Bonner Springs and Edwardsville cities, according to Bill Johnson, BPU general manager.
There was general agreement among the rest of the BPU board that the board needs to meet with the UG Commission and mayor.
Mulvany Henry said although the UG’s website describes the PILOT fee as a franchise fee, it really is not, and that needs to be corrected, also. She said it is a payment in lieu of taxes, different from a franchise fee.
According to BPU officials, the UG gets 11.9 percent of the amount that the BPU bills. If customers are slow to pay their bills, the UG will get its funds right away from the BPU, while the BPU will have to wait for the customers to pay.
According to Mulvany Henry, the UG legal department has looked into the PILOT fees and has determined that the BPU is handling them correctly.
In other discussion, the BPU heard a report about the utility’s electric supply operations. BPU board members said they hoped the BPU was protected against cyber attacks in the wake of the UG website being hit by a cyber attack last weekend. BPU officials assured them that although it could happen to anyone, the BPU is well protected against cyber attacks.
I understand the 11.9% on services provided by the BPU. What about the UG charges for services namely wastewater, stormwater and trash collection? Does UG maintain/repair drainage when things go south? Can UG bill for something nature provides, i.e., rain water? I mean, why call it a storm water charge? Trash and recycle? Does the UG drive the trucks and own the properties that take care of these services? Yes, I feel I got shanghaied with this utility bill that just showed up and yes, I’ll interpret this article by Ms. Rupert hinting that it is not the BPU’s fault – it’s the UG’s fault for these new higher taxes. Duly noted.