MCREA Board of Directors Retires $4.0 Million in Patronage Capital; Issues Capital Credits Checks
Cooperative businesses like Morgan County Rural Electric Association differ from investor-owned utilities because we operate to serve the needs of our members, not to increase stockholder profits. A great example of this is when MCREA experiences greater income than expenses, called margins. Those returns, called patronage capital, are reissued to our members in the form of capital credits checks. In contrast, investor owned utilities send their profits to their stockholders.
In October, 2020, the Morgan County REA Board of Directors authorized patronage capital retirements totaling $4.0 million for a complete retirement of 2008-2012 and partial retirement of 2013 MCREA margin allocations, along with a complete retirement of 2002 and partial retirement of 2003 generation and transmission margin allocations. This year’s MCREA Board of Directors authorized return is $1,250,000 larger than was returned in 2019, and is the largest capital retirement in the history of Morgan County REA. If you were an MCREA member in any (or all) of those years, capital credit checks were mailed out the first week of December for your share of the margin allocations.
Unclaimed Capital Credits
It is not unusual for MCREA to have unclaimed or uncashed capital credit checks from our margin allocations. In some cases, letters containing refunds were returned due to lack of current address. We also have instances in which capital credits checks were never cashed.
Capital credits checks were mailed the first week of December, 2020. If you did not receive a capital credit check by and you were a Morgan County REA member in the years listed above, please contact MCREA to verify that we have your current address to ensure that your capital credits check finds you. For information or questions, please call us at 970-867-5688 or email: customerservice@mcrea.org.