When you’re in the dark and you want to see, You need uh… Electricity, Electricity.
Senator Merritt (800-382-9467) (has introduced SB 2 which would allow out of state municipalities to join with Indiana municipalities and boards to supply electrical power. Current law requires that such joint agencies include only Indiana municipalities.
The bill provides that a municipality or joint agency may contract for the planning, acquisition, construction, reconstruction, operation, maintenance, repair, extension, and improvement of distribution facilities within or without its corporate limits or those of its members, or may contract with other public or private entities to perform these functions, without advertising for bids or securing performance and payment bonds. Currently, this ability only applies to generation and transmission facilities.
According to the fiscal note, there is currently one joint agency in Indiana: “the Indiana Municipal Power Agency (IMPA). IMPA includes one municipality in Ohio in addition to 59 municipalities in Indiana.”
The joint agency is governed by a board of commissioners. Each member municipality appoints a commissioner. This legislation specifies that the same individual cannot represent more than one municipality. (Sounds like there might be a backstory to that provision.) Current law provides for a 50 year contract for the municipalities to purchase power from the joint agency. This legislation adds a provision that permits subsequent extensions beyond that 50 year period. There is also language in the legislation that specifies that a joint agency is protected by the tort claims act, which (to some degree) protects governmental entities from civil litigation.
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