TOPEKA — Kansas lawmakers moved with lightning speed Wednesday to pass legislation providing $100 million in low-interest loans to cities facing high utility bills as a result of last month’s extreme cold.
The House and Senate endorsed the plan on the same day the bill received its first hearing, and sent it to Gov. Laura Kelly. The governor said she would sign it into law before she goes home, providing immediate relief to towns across the state who risk losing access to natural gas for heat and power if they don’t pay astronomical bills next week.
“Like all small-town rural America, we just cannot withstand an economic event like we have just been dealt,” said Chris Komarek, city administrator for Ellinwood, population 2,100, in a letter seeking help from lawmakers.
“We are a bedroom community, and a good portion of our citizens are over the age of 60, many of them on fixed incomes and or just making it with with Social Security alone,” Komarek said. “There is no room for increased utility costs.”
The House Financial Institutions and Rural Development Committee heard debate on the newly introduced House Bill 2429 early Wednesday. The legislation provides access to an investment fund controlled by the state treasurer. If federal aid becomes available, cities would be required to pay back loans as a top priority.
The committee engaged in procedural gymnastics to insert the loan program into the contents of Senate Bill 88, which previously dealt with easement boundaries. The panel then approved the overhauled Senate bill as part of a plan to fast-track the measure into law.
Shortly after the committee concluded its work, the House took emergency action to endorse the loan program by a 124-0 vote. The Senate passed the bill on a 37-1 vote in the afternoon.
“This loan program is very important to our cities,” Kelly said during a news briefing at the Statehouse. “It gives them the immediate relief they need to avoid dire financial decisions while we pursue other long-term solutions.”
Sen. Alicia Straub, a Republican from Ellinwood, cast the lone vote in opposition to the bill. She said her constituents were not to blame for volatility in the natural gas markets.
“By accepting these low-interest loans,” Straub said, “in some way, it’s like we are acknowledging that somehow the consumer was at fault for this. I don’t feel that the consumer is at fault. And I don’t feel that consumers should have to pay this in any way.”
Kimberly Gencur Svaty, a lobbyist appearing on behalf of Kansas Municipal Utilities, urged members of the House panel to consider urgent, desperate pleas of cities across the state facing financial ruin from natural gas bills.
“You see words like ‘crippling,’ ‘duress,’ ‘insolvency,’ ‘bankruptcy,’ ‘please do something,’ ‘we need help,’ ” Gencur Svaty said.
Recently published financial statements show producers of natural gas seized an opportunity to make money during an unprecedented week of severe cold last month, the lobbyist explained. As residents from Canada to the Gulf Coast needed more gas than ever to heat their homes, weather-driven problems with pipelines and frozen wells exacerbated chaos in the natural gas markets.
Prices soared, and now the bills are coming due for small towns in Kansas that operated their own utility.
“We have immediate financial crisis right now. Literally, right now,” Gencur Svaty said.
She said all 53 cities that operate their own natural gas utility will need assistance, as well as 40-50 cities that operate as their own electric utility.
