The average Cleco customer will see their monthly bills decline more than $12 per month for the next 12 months due to lower federal taxes paid by Cleco, according to Public Service Commissioner Chairman Mike Francis.
An average Cleco residential customer using 1217 kilowatt-hours will receive a credit of $12 on their electric bills beginning next month and running through July 2020.
The overall impact is a reduction of $84 million for Cleco’s 285,000 Louisiana customers. Exact impacts for customers will be based on their individual consumption.
“I am happy that we were able to translate these tax cuts into lower Cleco bills beginning in the hot summer months, when they would have the greatest impact,” Francis said.
Congress enacted the Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in December 2017. The law reduced the U.S. corporate income-tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent for many corporate taxpayers effective in January 2018.
Investor-owned utilities regulated by the Public Service Commission were required to adjust their rates to reflect the lower tax rate and refund any taxes collected before the rates were adjusted.
On Wednesday the Public Service Commission voted with Francis to pass the bulk of the tax savings on to Cleco ratepayers over a 12-month period. Customers will see a “TCJA Bill Credit” line item on their bills starting next month.
Francis said savings from the federal tax cuts are being shared with customers of Cleco, SWEPCO, Entergy, CenterPoint Energy Arkla, Atmos Energy and other utilities regulated by the Louisiana PSC.
