OCR Text |
Show Currently (p, SpeakingVl By Moon Lake Electric Association. Inc. CONFUSED ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP OF YOUR ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE AND THE REA The relationship of your cooperative to the Rural Electrification Administration Ad-ministration (commonly called the REA) is that of a borrower to a lender. Nothing more. REA is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture. It lends money to electric power suppliers and telephone service firms. Commercial power companies and commercial telephone companies, as well as electric cooperatives and telephone cooperatives, can borrow from the REA. REA does not own your cooperative nor make its policies. You and its other members own your cooperative. You and its other members, through the directors you elect, determine the cooperative policies. The money your cooperative borrows from the REA is being repaid from the revenue received as members pay their electric bills. Not only does your cooperative repay the money it borrows from the REA, it pays interest on it, too! Your electric cooperative is an electric power supplier. REA is, in effect, a banker. |