The ceiling of the main Rotunda inside Pennsylvania’s Capitol building. (Photo by Amanda Berg for the Capital-Star).
A lifeline for families struggling to pay utility bills would disappear at the end of this year unless Pennsylvania lawmakers pass legislation to reauthorize the commonwealth’s utility cutoff protection law.
With a state House vote on Wednesday and a state Senate vote in May, both chambers have passed their own bills to extend the 20-year-old law, with amendments, for another 10 years. But the two chambers have yet to agree on the details and have only eight session days remaining to do so.
House Consumer Protection, Technology and Utilities Committee Chairperson Robert Matzie (D-Beaver) said House Bill 1077, which passed the House with a 111-91 vote on Wednesday, already incorporates changes from the Senate legislation, such as including the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority among the covered utilities.
“It makes it easier for people living paycheck-to-paycheck to pay their bills if something in their lives goes haywire,” Matzie said, noting that 330,000 customers had utilities disconnected last year.
“Folks in Blair County struggled with the electric bill the same as those in Philadelphia. Does it matter if you live in Greene County or the city of Pittsburgh if your gas service is terminated?” Matzie asked.
Senate Bill 1017, sponsored by Sen. Lisa Boscola (D-Northampton), the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Committee, passed with a 42-8 vote in May, but was judged to be deficient by members of the House, Matzie said.
The existing Responsible Utility Customer Protection law provides a framework in which utilities must work with customers who are unable to pay their bills and puts limits on when and how utilities can be shut off.
The House version of the reauthorization bill would make changes including:
Decreasing the size of a loss of income needed to qualify for payment arrangements;
Allowing those who are unable to pay because of illness to provide a certificate from a nurse in addition to a physician, physician assistant or nurse practitioner;
Prohibiting utilities from collecting security deposits from customers earning less than 300% of the federal poverty income level;
Expanding the length and terms of payment arrangements;
Prohibiting reconnection fees for those earning less than 250% of the federal poverty level and requiring reconnection fees to be included in arrearages for those earning up to 400%;
Allowing the Public Utilities Commission to consider protection from abuse orders from other states or written certification by a domestic violence counselor or advocate to exempt a customer from the law.
The federal poverty level for a family of four is $31,000, meaning that families earning up to $93,000 would be eligible for payment plans.
Jesse Monoski, executive director for the Senate Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Committee, said that while the House bill incorporates some aspects of the Senate bill, it goes further than the Senate bill in eliminating requirements for security deposits and waiving reconnection fees.
The Senate bill would require “bad actors” who have stolen utility services or not paid bills in bad faith to pay a security deposit, allow reconnection fees to be forgiven as a credit on customers’ bills if they enroll in a customer assistance program, and eliminate the sunset provision requiring future reauthorization.
S.B. 1017 was referred to the House Consumer Protection, Technology and Utilities Committee in May but has not advanced.
In debate on the House floor Wednesday, Republican lawmakers raised concern about the effect of the expanded terms under which the PUC and utilities would be required to work with customers.
Rep. Craig Williams (R-Delaware), who previously worked as assistant general counsel for the Philadelphia area gas and electric utility PECO, warned that uncollected utility bills would be added to utility companies’ balance sheets and ultimately be passed on to consumers in the form of rate increases.
“House Bill 1077 is absolutely going to raise your electric bill and your gas bill, and because we’ve allowed the city of Pittsburgh to introduce water into this bill, your water bill, all of your bills are going up,” Williams said.
Also on Thursday, the House passed House Bill 2189, which reauthorizes Pennsylvania’s PA One Call program that requires builders planning excavations to call an 811 hotline to have underground utility lines marked. The bill passed in a 120-82 vote.