Santee Cooper’s new CEO collected $92,689 from ratepayers to cover his children’s tuition and books.

The Arizona Republic newspaper found that Mark Bonsall, 66, was not alone.

Bonsall’s Salt River Project sought higher electric rates while 77 executives spent $2.6 million in tuition assistance to send their children to such schools as Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Duke and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Santee Cooper board faces $8 billion in debt but hired Bonsall for 18 months at $1.1 million a year or $1.65 million in all, twice what former CEO Lonnie Carter was paid.

Executives including SRP’s general manager, vice president and lobbyists, have received as much as $100,000 for their kids’ educations.

They defend the cost because, they say, it keeps them competitive in the job market and lowers rates.

The same executives have called for rate hikes, saying revenue was not sufficient to pay for coal and gas plants and other investments needed on the power grid.

Critics of the increases say they will generate $110

million annually while executives spend millions of ratepayer dollars for their children to attend top schools.

The reimbursement up to a maximum of $10,000 per semester is based on how much it would cost at one of Arizona’s 3 universities.

One ratepayer, Mark Mulligan, said, “They maintain perks and salaries by raising rates and killing competition. They are not operating in the public’s interest.”

SRP, like Santee Cooper, is taxpayer owned. Its profits are supposed to go to its water and power operations.

Hundreds of SRP customers are challenging a proposal to raise rates on solar customers $50 a month.

They say this will hurt customers who generate some of their own power and turn rooftop-solar investments into costly liabilities.