(a) Revenues of a corporation for any fiscal year may be used to: (1) Defray expenses of the cooperative and of the operation and maintenance of its facilities during such fiscal year;(2) Pay the interest and principal obligations of the cooperative coming due in such fiscal year;(3) Finance, or to provide a reserve for the financing of, the construction or acquisition by, the cooperative of additional facilities to the extent determined by the board of directors;(4) Provide a reasonable reserve for working capital;(5) Provide a reserve for the payment of indebtedness of the cooperative maturing more than one (1) year after the date of issuance of such indebtedness in an amount not less than the total of the interest and principal payments in respect thereof required to be made during the next following fiscal year;(6) Provide a fund for education and the dissemination of information concerning the effective use of telephone service and other services made available by the cooperative; and(7) Provide reserves against the contingencies of catastrophe or calamity, including, but not limited to, ice breaks, cyclone, tornado, high winds, snows, etc.; reserves for bad debt losses, tive; and(7) Provide reserves against the contingencies of catastrophe or calamity, including, but not limited to, ice breaks, cyclone, tornado, high winds, snows, etc.; reserves for bad debt losses, major service losses, such as discontinuance of service by large plants or government installations with a large number of telephones.(b) All operating revenues in excess of the amounts necessary to pay expenses of operating and maintenance of its facilities and interest during the fiscal year shall be distributed by the cooperative to its patrons as either:(1) A refund to the patrons, which refund may in the discretion of the governing body be:(A) A credit on the books of the cooperative as a capital credit;(B) In cash; or(C) A combination of subdivisions (b)(1)(A) and (B); or(2) A general rate reduction.(c) The amount of each individual patron's credit as in subdivision (b)(1) shall be the same percentage of the total funds available for credit to patrons as such patron contributed to the total patronage of the cooperative for the period involved.Acts 1961, ch. 330, § 20; 1973, ch. 157, § 2; T.C.A., § 65-2921.
Tennessee Legal Code