Economists.com’s Dan Jackson gives a virtual presentation on cost-of-study scenarios during a meeting with the CUC board of directors last Tuesday.
THE Commonwealth Utilities Corporation is finalizing a new Memorandum of Agreement with the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation to address CHCC’s utility arrears now amounting to $67 million, CUC Executive Director Kevin Watson said.
Under the new MOA, CHCC will pay $50,000 a month, he added.
Last year, Gov. Arnold I. Palacios signed Public Law 23-30, which allows CHCC to pay the commercial utility rates for electricity, water and wastewater. Previously, CHCC was required to pay the much higher government rates.
In a previous MOA with CUC, CHCC agreed to pay $525,000 a month. The MOA expired in May 2024.
Watson said the CUC board wants to ensure that CHCC is current in its monthly billing payments.
“We … are trying to enter a [new] MOA with them to pay a certain amount each month, which is $50,000, and they have made a number of those payments. So now we just need to come up with the agreement that we both can agree on. Right now, we are operating in good faith with CHCC without the agreement, but we are working toward that agreement,” Watson said.
According to CUC chief financial officer Betty Terlaje, “With CHCC, they have been current since December when [their bill for the first time] reflected the … commercial rate. They have been paying their bills, and they paid what they agreed to in February in good faith — $50,000 [a month]. We have presented several options to them and they came back and said that $50,000 is all they can do for now or till a year from now.”
Variety was unable to get a comment from CHCC.
