Happy New Year Rim Country! ARIZONA NEWSPAPERS AND NATIONAL LOCAL MEDIA ASSOCIATIONS’ NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR
PAYSON ROUNDUP
Commission slashes solar incentives by
75 CENTS
TUESDAY | JANUARY 3, 2017 | PAYSON, ARIZONA
payson.com
Winter storms continue
Peter Aleshire
roundup editor
The Arizona Corporation Commission quickly checked off the first item on the Arizona Public Service’s Christmas wish list, by dramatically reducing the incentives for homeowners to install solar panels. APS spent millions of dollars on dark money campaigns to elect four of the five members of the Corporation Commission, which in March will also rule on the private utilities’ request for an 8 percent rate increase. The private utility reportedly spent $3 million two years go to elect two the commissioners and millions more in the last election to elect two more. The utility has refused to confirm or detail its political spending despite a lonely but persistent effort by Commissioner Bob Burns to force disclosure. One of the commission’s first post-election actions was to approve an APS request to eventually eliminate a requirement that APS buy the excess power generated by rooftop solar installations and apply the cost to reducing the customer’s bill when the sun’s not shining. This system of “net metering” significantly reduced bills for solar customers, even though they may continue to use electricity from the APS grid during the night or on cloudy days. Under the current system, utilities must pay the full retail rate for the excess power — about 12 cents a kilowatt hour. The commission agreed to gradually adjust rates for net metering, reducing the benefit to solar customers. Existing customers will keep the current rates for 20 years. New customers will lock in a lower rate for 10 years. The commission left the task of setting the new, declining net metering rates for the future — so it’s unclear how quickly the new system will drain the benefits for solar customers out of the existing system. Commissioner Burns, an outspoken critic of the APS dark money campaign to elect his fellow commissioners, provided the sole vote against the APS proposal. He favored a 20-year lock-in of existing rates for all customers — old and new. Solar customers and representatives of solar companies criticized the decision, with The Alliance for Solar Choice representative pronouncing himself “deeply disappointed” in the new rate structure. He said the decision ignores the real, long-term value of solar power — which has fewer environmental side effects and contributes far less heat-trapping pollution than most other forms of power generation. He predicted the decision would gradually choke off Arizona’s booming, rooftop solar industry. However, APS argued that the net-metering system reduced the bills of solar customers to nearly nothing. As a result, the solar customers weren’t making their “fair share” contribution to the cost of maintaining the existing electrical grid on which they still depended at night. Solar advocates countered that the rise of solar panels
APS spent millions in a dark money campaign to elect friendly regulators
• See Corporation commission, page 3
Peter Aleshire/Roundup
The National Weather Service expects the New Year’s storm to sprinkle another 1-4 inches of snow above 6,000 feet and perhaps 4-8 inches of snow above 8,000 feet — but bring only rain to lower elevation areas like Payson. The ski resorts could get as much as a foot of snow, including Snow Bowl in Flagstaff and Sunrise near Show Low. The forecast for the winter predicts a little more snow than normal for the first time in years. The lingering El Niño sea surface warming in the eastern Pacific normally brings wet winter conditions to the Southwest, which has skittered along the edge of a record drought for the past 15 years.
Jail assault prompts 15-year sentence by
Alexis Bechman
roundup staff reporter
A man that assaulted a Globe correctional officer by putting her in a chokehold in a jail cell was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Andrew Bishop-Thompson, 20, has been in and out of the court system since the age of 11, according to a pre-sentence report. He recently learned he would spend the next 15 years in prison after Judge Bryan Chambers on Dec. 2 sentenced him for assaulting Lt. Christine Duarte in the Globe jail.
On July 7, a correctional officer collecting food trays in the Globe facility found BishopThompson lying on the floor of his cell. Bishop-Thompson told the guard he planned to strangle himself with a sheet if he could not get out of his cell. The guard had the cell opened and BishopThompson started packing up his things, even though the guard told him that he did not need to take anything with him. When Bishop-Thompson continued to disregard her commands, she called for backup. Duarte responded, but Bishop-Thompson ignored her commands as well. When she attempted
to handcuff him, Bishop-Thompson stood up and grabbed Duarte around the neck with his left arm as he tried to grab her Taser. Duarte covered her Taser so BishopThompson put her in a headlock, obstructing her breathing. Another guard Tasered Bishop-Thompson and he fell onto Duarte. She injured her knee, back and face. The other guards finally subdued BishopThompson. Bishop-Thompson wrote the court that he felt extremely remorseful.
• See Jail attack, page 2
Proposed class divides school board by
Michele Nelson
roundup staff reporter
A vote to initiate and invest budget dollars in a class to teach Rim Country Middle School students about social enterprise split the Payson Unified School District Governing Board. Shirley Dye voted against funding a class to teach the students how to identify a social issue in their community and then create a business to fund that cause. Examples of social enterprise include the Time Out Shelter, Senior Center and Humane Society of Central “This is something Arizona’s thrift stores. All proceeds from those stores cover the everyday that would be more expenses of the organizations so they can pay for staff, appropriate for a keep the lights on and buildings maintained. These everyday expenses are virtually impossible club or wait until for nonprofits to find donations or grants to cover. Most high school.” donors prefer to pay for identifiable programs, such as Shirley Dye spaying and neutering feral dogs and cats or for major Payson School Board infrastructure investments such as a call center for
Time Out. Yet, these nonprofits must cover the day-to-day costs to do the good works they do. RCMS Principal Jennifer White said she heard about the program at a conference. “It’s an elective course,” said White. “It allows kids to dig deep into the community and school. They come up with a product. Then ... they hook them up with someone in their community ... they pair them up with mentors.” Basically, the social enterprise course would teach students business skills any entrepreneur needs to create a successful business plan. Once the students have created the plan with the help of their mentor, they present their findings. White said the organization that has created the curriculum usually runs the class for a full year, but because of the timing, she pitched the idea of trying out the course for a semester.
• See School board, page 2
Obamacare: Repeal could create economic, budget crisis Enrollment surged in 2016 by
Michele Nelson
by
Peter Aleshire
roundup editor
roundup staff reporter
Secretary of Health Sylvia M. Burwell this week announced 400,000 new consumers have signed up for the federal health insurance Marketplace in the 39 states that use the Marketplace for 2017. “Last week was a milestone for open enrollment,” she told reporters from around the country. Burwell said 400,000 more people purchased health insurance between this year and last year. Last year, 6 million people purchased
• See Enrollment, page 2
THE WEATHER
volume 27, no. 1
Health coverage for 600,000 residents at stake
Tuesday: Mostly cloudy with a high of 44, a low of 32 and a slight chance for rain. Wednesday should see 43 for the high, 27 for the low and a slight chance for snow overnight.
See our ad and upcoming events on page 12
If President-elect Donald Trump follows through on a vow to repeal the Affordable Care Act, it could strip away insurance for 600,000 Arizonans, take $3 billion out of the state’s economy and blow a $600 million hole in the state budget, according to studies and statements released by health care advocacy groups. Officials from the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) said that a repeal of the controversial effort to provide health care for some 20 million Americans could have a huge impact on the state, where 28 percent of residents rely on AHCCCS for their medical care. Nearly one-third of Gila County residents get their care through AHCCCS.
The Affordable Care Act provided federal funding to allow AHCCCS to expand coverage from women with children living in poverty to families making up to about 138 percent of a poverty-level wage. That’s about $33,000 for a family of four. In addition, the act provided coverage for many other families, with subsidized premiums for people making up to nearly double a poverty-level wage. President-elect Trump has vowed to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, long a goal of Republicans in Congress. He hasn’t specified what he wants to put in place of the health care program. Critics of the program have suggested allowing insurance companies to operate across state lines or sharply limiting medical malpractice
lawsuits and awards might result in lower-cost premiums. However, the recent estimates paint a bleak picture of the impact on Arizona of a simple repeal of the health care program. The state would find itself faced immediately with the choice between eliminating health care for more than 600,000 residents or finding a way to pick up some portion of the now-federally covered cost. Among the impacts: • 425,000 residents would lose AHCCCS coverage. Since the state’s voters approved a proposition requiring coverage of many of those working-poor residents, the state might have to pick up much of the cost. • Currently about 1.9 million res-
• See Repeal, page 3