Utility affordability bill shouldn’t burden poorest

The Utility Affordability and Relief Act, House Bill 206, just passed by the House, requires that struggling families pay the pastdue electric bills of other struggling families. This obviously is spectacularly unfair.

An icy winter coupled with a pandemic and an economic crisis means that too many families have utility bills they can’t pay. Not having heat and power isn’t an option, so the bills keep going up. And up and up. These families need help ASAP, as anyone with a conscience agrees. HB 206 forgives past-due electric bills for anyone below the 250 percent poverty level. So far so good. As with most legislation, the devil is in the details, though.

Instead, HB 206 does something so bizarre that we have trouble wrapping our heads around how anyone thought this was a good idea: It requires families above the poverty line — even if just barely — to cover the past-due amounts by increasing their own power bills.

Yes, you read that right. If passed, HB 206 would pile more debt onto families barely hanging on to help people who’ve already fallen off the cliff.

That’s not how it should work. That’s why we — Reps. Patty Lundstrom, Ambrose Castellano, Harry Garcia, Candie Sweetser, Anthony Allison and Willie Madrid — voted against it and hope our Senate colleagues will do the same.

Rep. Patty Lundstrom District 9, San Juan and McKinley counties

Rep. Ambrose Castellano District 70, San Miguel, Torrence and Santa Fe counties