130th MAINE LEGISLATURE
		LD 2010		LR 2606(05)
	Resolve, To Help Certain Businesses with Electricity Costs
	Fiscal Note for Bill as Engrossed with: C "A" (S-549) S "A" (S-569) to C "A" (S-549)
	Committee: Taxation
Fiscal Note
Current biennium cost increase - American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) Funds
			FY 2021-22	FY 2022-23	Projections  FY 2023-24	Projections  FY 2024-25
Appropriations/Allocations
	Other Special Revenue Funds		$0	$500	$500	$500
Fiscal Detail and Notes
	This bill requires theDepartment of Economic and Community Development (DECD) to make payments to utilities that the utilities will then credit to the accounts of their eligible customers by October 30, 2022. The amounts distributed are energy rate relief payments to qualified medium commercial customers of an investor-owned transmission and distribution utility who had electricity usage in February 2022 that exceeded 1000 kilowatt-hours. Amounts credited are $1,500, $2,000 or $3,000 depending on level of electricity usage. The DECD will use a tiered structure of kilowatt-hour usage reflected on a customer's February 2022 invoice and the number of eligible customers identified by each covered utility. The DECD has indicated that it will use $7.0 million in existing funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 already allocated to the DECD in Public Law 2021, chapter 483 to provide the relief payments. The amount to be credited to each eligible customer's bill will depend on 1) the individual's usage; 2) the total number of eligible customers identified by the covered utilities; and 3) the $7.0 million in ARPA funds to be used for this purpose.
	The bill includes an Other Special Revenue Funds base allocation of $500 in fiscal year 2022-23 to a newly established Energy Rate Relief Fund within the DECD to allow expenditure of any other funds received to facilitate energy rate relief payments.