When REC member-owners receive their electric bills this month, they will find their portion of $13 million in a cash back credit. REC’s Board of Directors chose to return a record amount of Capital Credits directly to members. This year, due to the extraordinary circumstances resulting from the COVID-19 crisis, Capital Credits retirements are occurring now instead of later in the year.
"In this time of financial hardship, the board was eager to return as much as possible to help their fellow member-owners, and to send those $13 million back into the communities REC serves," said Kent Farmer, REC’s president and CEO. "We are thrilled with the board’s decision. It’s wonderful that as your local electric utility, we are in the financial position to give back, especially during times like these. This is the power of community, and the power of cooperatives."
Capital Credits represent each member-owner’s investment in their cooperative. Instead of profits sent to stockholders in faraway places, the Cooperative Business Model means those dollars stay in the local communities served by REC.
As a not-for-profit, all revenues REC receives through monthly bill payments, beyond the costs for providing electric service, remain the property of REC’s member-owners and are assigned in the form of Capital Credits. As financial conditions allow, Capital Credits are retired and returned to member-owners over time.
"Capital Credits are unique to cooperatives," added Farmer. "Being able to provide this benefit to our members now, when it is most needed, is another way the cooperative is serving our member-owners and their communities."
