Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) will suspend utility cutoffs to customers for two weeks upon a Memphis City Council request Tuesday morning.
MLGW suspended all cutoffs in March as COVID-19 began to disrupt the Shelby County economy. It began cutting utilities to customers behind on their payments on Monday, August 24th.
The utility said it was owed around $32 million from customers who hadn’t paid since March. On an average year, the amount from delinquent customers is around $15 million, MLGW officials said Tuesday.
Since cutoffs began last week, customers have made about $7.6 million in payments, lowering the delinquent balance to about $22.5 million, said Jim West, vice president of customer relations for MLGW.
On Tuesday, the council debated a proposal from council member Martavius Jones that would have sent $5.7 million in CARES Act funding for the Memphis Zoo to a different fund to help those whose utilities had been cut. Jones proposed that Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s office could cut the city’s police and fire budgets by $5.7 million (or 1.2 percent of their total combined budgets) to pay the zoo.
This discussion delved into all of the many different sources from which needful customers could get help to pay their bill and keep the lights on. Millions of dollars are available through different funds, though none of them are enough to wipe out the entire $22 million backlog.
While the council mapped these disparate funding sources, council member Edmund Ford Sr. asked that MLGW hold off on future cutoffs until the council could study the issue and, possibly, bring a measure to help in two weeks. The ask was not immediately approved by MLGW officials on the call. But MLGW president and CEO J.T. Young joined the discussion after Ford’s ask and said they would pause cutoffs until September 14th.
MLGW suspended cutoffs Monday and Tuesday as Shelby County Schools students resume classes online.
