HEA & WFEC PAY $467,036
I’m old enough to remember when penny candy actually cost a penny. For a nickel, you could buy enough candy to rot your teeth out, as my mother used to
say. But what does a penny buy these days? Not much. The government can’t even make a penny for a penny anymore. According to the U.S. Mint, it now costs 1.5 cents to produce one.
About the only thing of value you can still get for a penny is electricity. You might call it “penny electricity.” No, I’m not kidding. Think about it!
easier, Harmon Electric’s
To make the math residential
rate
for a kilowatt-hour of electricity is 13.5 cents. That is 60 minutes of 1,000 watts of electricity for thirteen and one half cents, so a penny of electricity equates to 75 watts. It’s enough to power a 9-watt LED light bulb - the equivalent of a 60-watt incandescent bulb - for more than 8 hours, all for only a penny.
Where else can you get that kind of
value? How many eggs will a penny buy? How much milk, bread, coffee, medicine or gasoline? Gas has come down from its stratospheric levels of several years ago, but there is still no comparison to the value of electricity. For example, if a gallon of gas costs $2.50 and your car gets 25 miles to the gallon, you can drive 176 yards - about two blocks - on a penny’s worth of gas. I will take 8 hours of lighting for a penny over a two-block drive any day.
The value is just as evident when powering things other than lighting. Take, for instance, your smart phone. Using the same 13.5 cents per kWh price, penny electricity allows you to fully charge your iPhone more than 13 times for a penny. You can charge it once every day of the year for about 28 cents total. Not impressed? Well, how about these other examples of what you can do with just a penny’s worth of electricity: power a 1,000-watt microwave on high for 4 minutes; run a 200-watt desktop computer for 20 minutes; watch just under 2 hours of your favorite shows on a 40-watt, 32-inch,
HARMON ELECTRIC ASSOCIATION, INC 114 North First Hollis, OK 73550
Operating in
Beckham, Harmon, Jackson, Kiowa and Greer Counties in Oklahoma and Hardeman and Childress Counties in Texas
Member of Western Farmers Electric Cooperative Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives National Rural Electric Cooperative Association National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative Texas Electric Cooperative, Inc. Oklahoma Rural Water Association, Inc.
LED television or just under 1 hour on a 75- watt, 75-inch mega TV. The examples are endless.
We are
fortunate electricity is such an excellent value because we have a huge appetite for it. We tend to forget that.
Electricity is not
expensive. It’s that we use it for so many different things: lighting, heating, cooking, cooling, refrigeration, cleaning, washing, pumping, entertainment, communications - even transportation these days.
Few corners of our lives are left untouched by electricity. Unfortunately, we don’t always appreciate it. When our monthly electric bill comes, we open it and may complain about the cost. It’s a knee- jerk reaction ingrained in us as consumers. We don’t stop to think about the value we received for the money. Early in my career, I had the pleasure to interview an elderly woman who vividly remembered the day electricity came to her farm. Her name escapes me, but I do remember she proudly showed me the worn, dog-eared membership certifi cate the co-op issued to her husband. “You young people will never know
what it was like to have electricity for the very fi rst time,” she said. “It was glorious. Nowadays, you take it for granted.” Her farm was energized in 1940. She said the price of electricity at the time was slightly less than a penny a kilowatt-hour - true penny electricity. A lot has changed since then. Wages and the cost of living today are a far cry from 1940, when the average annual wage was less than $150 a month and the average cost of a house was $3,920. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the value of electricity. In 77 years, its price has risen much slower than the rate of infl ation. A penny in 1940 had as much buying power as 17 cents today, which means the residential price of electricity - which now averages 12 cents a kWh nationally - is actually a better deal today than it was in 1940.
So to my way of thinking, the value of electricity is like the bygone days of penny candy, and it’s OK to indulge yourself a little. But, unlike penny candy, penny electricity won’t rot your teeth out.
and Western Farmers Electric Cooperative together delivered Gross Receipts Tax checks to 10 school districts in Oklahoma and Property Tax checks to 3 school districts in Texas. T e amount of the tax paid to each school district depends on the total number of miles of power lines the two cooperatives have in each school district. Although HEA and WFEC are non-
IN TAXES TO SCHOOL DISTRICTS In 2016, Harmon Electric Association
profi t corporations, and therefore do not pay income tax, they do pay many diff erent taxes, including the Gross Receipts Tax in Oklahoma and Property Tax in Texas. T e Gross Receipts Tax is sent to
the Oklahoma Tax Commission, which withholds 5% for collection and handling, for distribution to the school districts. T e following is a breakdown of the
Farmers Electric Cooperative:
OKLAHOMA Beckham County Merritt HEA..........................48 Sayre Erick
Greer County Granite
HEA........................719 WFEC..................4,481
Mangum HEA...................42,103 WFEC................39,052
Harmon County Hollis HEA...................60,388 WFEC................54,454
Jackson County Blair
Duke HEA.....................2,119
Eldorado HEA...................17,618 WFEC................31,288
Olustee HEA.....................9,838 WFEC................42,795
TEXAS Childress County Wellington HEA........................557 Hardeman County
Chillicothe HEA........................227 Quanah HEA.....................1,436 TOTAL..........467,036
HARMON ELECTRIC HI-LITES - Lisa Richard, Editor The Harmon Electric Hi-Lites is the publication of your local owned and operated rural electric cooperative, organized and incorporated under the laws of Oklahoma to serve you with low-cost electric power.
Charles Paxton ......................................................................................... Manager
BOARD OF TRUSTEES Pete Lassiter ..................................................................................................District 1 Jim Reeves ....................................................................................................District 2 Lee Sparkman ...............................................................................................District 3 Braden Cunningham ......................................................................................District 4 Burk Bullington ..............................................................................................District 5 Jean Pence ....................................................................................................District 6 J. R. Conley ...................................................................................................District 7 Charles Horton .............................................................................................. Attorney
Monthly Board of Directors meetings Held Fourth Thursday of Each Month
IF YOUR ELECTRICITY GOES OFF, REPORT THE OUTAGE
We have a 24-hour answering service to take outage reports and dispatch service- men. Any time you have an outage to report in the Hollis or Gould exchange area, call our offi ce at 688-3342. Any other exchange
area call toll free, 1-800-643-7769.
TO REPORT AN OUTAGE, CALL 688-3342 or 1-800-643-7769 ANYTIME
HEA...................15,111 WFEC................59,648
HEA...................18,602 WFEC................66,496
HEA..........................56
dollars paid to the school districts by Harmon Electric Association and Western
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