JerryBellune@yahoo.com

Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative’s rates are not going to skyrocket.

That was the assurance of CEO Bob Paulling to the cooperative’s members at their annual meeting at Lexington High.

Paulling denied reports in the Chronicle and other media that costs to close his company’s failed nuclear project will skyrocket.

As a customer of Santee Cooper, Mid-Carolina is expected to feel the impact of closing the project on which it was a 45% owner with Lexington County-based S.C. Electric & Gas.

When the project’s nuclear reactor contractor Westinghouse Electric declared bankruptcy last year, Paulling said, “our world was turned upside down.”

The members of Mid-Carolina and the rest of the cooperatives across S.C. have been paying for a portion of the project for the last several years, he said.

“By being a customer we had no choice in the matter but to pass the costs along.

“Most of us have seen the article [referring to the Chronicle] and honestly I can’t stand here and predict how this all plays out over the next year or two.

“But I think that we have assembled a team of very smart people dedicated to make sure that when this is all said and done that the outcome will be the best possible outcome for the members of the cooperative especially Mid-Carolina Elective Cooperative.

“I do have some good news, contrary to local reports which falsely stated that Mid-Carolina’s rates will skyrocket. I am here to report that the project failure hasn’t impacted our wholesale power costs.

“With our rate structure, we can shift use to off beat times to help us make choices to save on our homeowners bills. Our power costs still remain about 65% of our expenses.”

Paulling said rising property taxes are putting pressure on MCEC’s rates.

“In 2014, we paid $4.8 million in five counties we serve and pay property taxes. Last year we paid $6.1 million. That is how much it has gone up.

“A lot of people don’t think cooperatives pay taxes. We are tax collectors.

“We collect taxes and pass it on to the counties.

“We need to collect about $9.25 per month from everybody on the Mid-Carolina system just to pay property taxes. Think about that. $9.25 to pass along to the counties we serve just to pay property taxes.

“This increase and others require us to adjust the account charge to about 10 cents per day. Right now residential bills are 80 cents per day. We have got to go to 90 cents per day. Do the math. It’s $36 a year.”