It PAYS to be a member of the Brown County REA. As a member you benefit from any margins produced by the Cooperative. Capital Credits, or patronage dividends, are part of your investment in the cooperative. As a not-for-profit organization Brown County REA sets rates to generate enough money to pay operating expenses, make payments on any loans, and to pay our wholesale power provider.
At the end of the year your co-op completes financial analysis and determines whether there was an excess in revenues - this being called a "margin."
From those margins, Capital Credits are allocated to all persons that were members in a particular year, based upon their use of electricity during that year. An allocation represents your share of ownership in the member-owned cooperative.
As money is available and as the co-op Board of Directors decide, Capital Credits are retired and paid to the members.
By retaining Capital Credits for a period of time your cooperative reduces our need for borrowing money which in turn helps us with saving in interest costs.
If you move or no longer have electric service with Brown County REA, please let us know your current address so that future Capital Credit disbursements can be mail to you. Even if you are no longer a member there will be Capital Credits in your name for the years you were a member of the cooperative.
Please check the list below to see if you are or know someone that we currently have unclaimed property for or if we were unable to successfully mail Capital Credit checks to them due to incorrect contact information. If you are or know someone on the list, please contact us to update their records by either calling us at (800) 658-2368 or (507) 794-3331 or via e-mail at bcrea@bcrea.coop.