Is the co-op looking for you?
Does Socorro Electric Cooperative owe you money?
If your name is one of more than 1,300 on a published list in Enchantment, a monthly newsprint magazine for the New Mexico Rural Electric Cooperative Association, it probably does.
The list was published in the October edition mailed last week under the headline “Please Help Us Find These Folks.” Below that, it states that the co-op has “unclaimed property belonging to people or organizations listed,” and if you have any information about the people on the list, call the co-op.
The “unclaimed property” turns out to be money — $27,696 that’s due to members.
“It’s for unclaimed capital credits that were retired in 2010 and the over-collection on debt cost,” explained Eileen Latasa, office manager at Socorro Electric. “We’re trying to notify all patrons that they have capital credits coming.”
As a private, non-profit corporation, the co-op does not technically earn profits. Any revenue over and above the cost of doing business are periodically to be returned to members in the form of capital credits, or patronage capital Socorro Electric’s board of trustees voted to retire last year. Payments were mailed in June 2010, but not everybody got their check. In fact, 1,017 names are listed for 2010. Another 289 names appear under the list for 2011. Those people are owed money that the co-op inadvertently overcharged them over several years.
Latasa said the checks were returned by the post office as undeliverable.
“We may not have a current address, so sending out another letter is futile,” Latasa said.
Many of the names you’ll recognize. Some are government officials; some are local businesses, or former businesses; some are in jail; some are your neighbors; and some of them are dead.
“If they are deceased, we want to notify the estate that they have money coming,” Latasa said.
Co-op General Manager Joseph Herrera said that if the money goes unclaimed, it will go to the Socorro Electric Foundation, the co-op’s charitable trust that provides student scholarships.
Herrera said people will have roughly 60 days to claim their money.
“We’ll let this one go through, and probably by the end of year we’ll cut it off,” he said.
Herrera said the co-op has already received a lot of phone calls regarding the matter.
“We’ve been overwhelmed, which is good,” he said. “We’ve been working on the list for the last six months and want to make sure people get the money that’s coming to them.”
Contact T.S. Last