Several Articles in the bylaws would be revised. The majority of the proposed changes are interrelated and are needed to protect VEA’s tax-exempt status under IRS rules. The most significant of these revisions are in Articles I – III, as well as Article VII, and they address the need to include language that protects Valley Electric’s tax-exempt status now that broadband is among the services we provide to members and those outside of our service territory. We want to make sure that selling broadband does not change how we’re treated under tax laws.
Another important and closely related effect of these changes is to ensure, that members who take electric service retain control and voting rights of the Cooperative, rather than consumers of broadband, who might live outside our territory and do not purchase power. Likewise, we must ensure that in the years ahead patronage capital earned because of margins from broadband services is allocated back to broadband patrons, much as margins from electric service are allocated back to members.