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Arkansas Governor Tells Utilities To Lower Rates After Getting Federal Tax Cuts

KUAR | By Jacob Kauffman

Published January 12, 2018 at 6:36 AM CST

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Arkansas Public Service Commissioner Kim O'Guinn was appointed by Governor Asa Hutchinson on Monday (left to right).

Arkansas Public Service Commissioner Kim O'Guinn was appointed by Governor Asa Hutchinson in Nov. 2016.

Governor Asa Hutchinson is calling on the state’s Public Service Commission and utility companies to “take the necessary steps to pass on the benefits” of Congress’s new corporate tax cut to Arkansas ratepayers. The Republican governor detailed his request to PSC Chairman Ted Thomas in a letter Thursday.

Hutchinson pointed out that investor-owned utilities have a monopoly to provide electricity and natural gas services and can only charge rates “that recover the cost of providing the utility service plus a rate of return on investment.” And now with federal taxes lowered, utilities should move “expeditiously” to pass benefits on to ratepayers in the form of “lower utility rates.”