Taxpayer-owned Santee Cooper’s part-time board members are paid more than $12,000 each annually.

Santee Cooper supplies power to Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative member-owners in Lexington County.

Each Santee Cooper board member received:

• $10,384.20 in compensation.

• $2,000 for travel, insurance and meeting reimbursement.

This was revealed in their annual income-disclosure reports filed with the State Ethics Commission.

We reported last year that some Santee Cooper board members received taxpayer-supported state health-insurance benefits.

They aren’t eligible for insurance because they are part-timers.

The Santee Cooper board has been without a permanent chairman more than 2 years.

The last chairman, Leighton Lord, was paid $24,000 annually plus $2,000 for travel, insurance and meetings.

He resigned after a dispute with Gov. Henry McMaster over the utility’s failed $9 billion nuclear project.

Acting board chairman Dan Ray reported receiving the same amount last year as other board members.

McMaster is expected to appoint as chairman Peter McCoy, a former Republican House member and immediate past US attorney for South Carolina, The State newspaper reported.

Despite more than $8 billion in debt, Santee Cooper last December gave bonuses of more than $5 million to 1,463 employees.

Individual cash rewards averaged about $3,500 each, topping out at $165,000 for a high-level executive.

We reported earlier last year that Santee Cooper president and CEO Mark Bonsall was paid $1,160,652, including a $12,540 car allowance.

Mollie Gore of Santee Cooper said that in 1988, the utility’s Advisory Board led by the governor set the annual pay levels at $24,000 for chairman and $10,000 for other members.

Gore said the $10,384.20 that members received last year included 27 paydays instead of 26.

The $384.20 overpayment per member was “returned through reduced paychecks this month.”

The Legislature has been considering proposals to either sell Santee Cooper, have it privately managed or accept a reform proposal from the utility.

2 Santee Cooper board seats including the chairman are vacant.

5 other members appointed by then-Gov. Nikki Haley continue to serve though their terms have expired.

Brundrett is the news editor of The Nerve (www.thenerve.org). Contact him at 803-254-4411 or rick@thenerve.org .