While record cold temperatures have prompted Clarksdale residents to turn up the heat and turn on the water to keep it from freezing, there is nothing the city nor Clarksdale Public Utility can do to forgive, cancel or even reduce a water or electric bill.
Ward 3 Commissioner Willie Turner presented a letter to CPU General Manager Curtis Boschert on Monday asking for help with high electric bills and water bills prompted by the weather.
But Boschert, in briefing the board on weather concerns and its impact on CPU on Thursday, pointed out state law prohibits him, anyone at CPU or a city official or even a state official from changing, reducing or cancelling a water or electric bill.
Boschert said CPU does work with customers to set up payment plans when utility bills get out of hand.
The utility has programs to help people with high utility bills in the summer and winter when weather is the most extreme.
Turner’s request was two fold:
• Request CPU review all accounts for major increases during the most recent billing cycle and he suggested a 50-percent credit against the total bill.
• Request CPU review all accounts for major increases over the past billing cycle and develop a three to six month payment plan for bills greater than the amount of the previous billing cycle. This review would not include current past-due payment plans or any accounts deemed delinquent.
There are several agencies around Clarksdale that have programs to help residents who can not pay a utility bill or need assistance in paying a bill.
The City of Jackson last year tried to push legislation that would allow municipalities more flexibilty to pay bills and set aside debt.
That bill was vetoed by Gov. Tate Reeves.
Reeves pointed to Article 4, Section 66 of the Mississippi Constitution.
That section prohibits “the adoption of any law granting a donation or gratuity in favor of any person except by concurrence of two-thirds of the members of each branch of the legislature.”
The bill also did not specify who would qualify for the debt forgieness or how they would be chosen.service “in the form of debt forgiveness.”
