One of the Indiana House’s priority bills officially passed both chambers of the legislature on Tuesday afternoon. State Rep. Alaina Shonkwiler, R-Noblesville, authored House Bill 1002, which would allow residential ratepayers to be placed on budget billing plans on July 1, and utilities will be p rohibited from disconnecting low-income customers’ services during periods with extreme heat warnings. The legislation also ties utility profits to performance metrics, including affordability and service restoration, and utilities will use a three-year rate plan. The bill introduces “performance-based ratemaking,” Shonkwiler previously said, and ensures that utilities are rewarded for delivering results that benefit Indiana residents. House Bill 1002 passed the Senate in a unanimous 46-0 vote on Tuesday afternoon. Prior to the start of the legislative session, both Republicans and Democrats agreed that utility affordability was one of their top priorities. State Sen. Eric Koch, R-Bedford, argued that House Bill 1002 is transformational. The bill changes an 113-year-old model, Koch said, because rates are set on a cost of service ratemaking model. “House Bill 1002 establishes a comprehensive framework to improve electric utility affordability, reliability, transparency and accountability through targeted levelized billing for income-eligible households with an opt-out option,” Koch said, “strengthened consumer protection, expanded data reporting for utilities … performance-based ratemaking, mandatory multi-year ratemaking plans and a utility-funded, low-income assistance program.” State Sen. Fady Qadourra, D-Indianapolis, asked Koch how much Hoosiers are estimated to save through the bill. No estimation was included in the bill, Koch said. Qadourra supported the bill on Tuesday, but he said the legislature needs to do more to protect residential ratepayers going forward. As of now, Qadourra believes it was important to support House Bill 1002 because it was a first step to protect Hoosier ratepayers. “I’m not critiquing that the bill doesn’t move the needle, but I don’t think it goes far enough,” Qadourra said. “I will still support it, but we had great ideas to actually implement, effective immediately, at the end of session, and we passed on those ideas.” On Tuesday, Qadourra said he wished the legislature had done more to protect residents against data centers, especially tax exemptions that could be up to 50 years. State Sen. Rodney Pol Jr., D-Chesterton, on Monday, proposed an amendment that wouldn’t allow tax breaks for data centers, which failed in a voice vote. “We’re giving up sales tax exemptions for 50 years to these data centers,” Qadourra said. “But we nickel and dime Hoosiers when we introduce amendments to actually reduce their bills in a very precise manner.” On Monday, the Senate defeated 12 amendments proposed by Democrats, with Koch saying that nearly all would trigger a “recommit” if passed and have to go to the appropriations committee. The recommit deadline had passed, Koch said, and any amendments passed would have killed the bill. Pol proposed seven of the 12 failed amendments and said he didn’t know about the recommit deadline ahead of time. “I wish I got some notice,” Pol previously said. “I don’t think (House Bill) 1002 should die at all. I think that all of these should be applicable to recommit to (the appropriations committee) Thursday, and we should be able to vote on these.” Gov. Mike Braun is expected to sign House Bill 1002 into law at a later date. [email protected] ...read more read less