Don’t spend it all at once.

If you’re one of about a million northeastern Illinois residents who get natural gas delivery from Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas, you’re in line for a share of a $125 million settlement Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced Thursday.

According to Capitol News Illinois, the Illinois Commerce Commission still must approve the deal, which stemmed from consumer advocates’ complaints about the costs of an ongoing Peoples Gas program to retire more than 1,000 miles of pipe carrying natural gas underneath Chicago.

“These bill credits are good news for Peoples Gas customers who have suffered so much financial pain because of the utility’s wasteful spending,” said Sarah Moskowitz, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, per CNI. “We look forward to continuing the important work ahead to hold Peoples Gas accountable and seek justice for its long-suffering customers.”

Obviously, $125 million is real money. But the way it shakes out for individual customers is almost negligible. It’s a three-year statement credit cycle where each account will recover about $50 in 2026 and $40 each in 2027 and 2028. Broken down monthly, it’s maybe $4 every billing cycle. That doesn’t exactly heal anyone’s financial pain.

The allegedly excessive surcharge at the root of advocate concerns was collected between 2017 and 2023. One of my favorite wonky websites, USinflationcalculator.com, says a 2017 dollar is worth $1.35 today, a cumulative increase that makes the whole deal feel like maybe the utility just got great terms on a loan.

CNI reported that Peoples Gas also will remove $130 million in capital investments, a move expected to save customers more than $350 million. While that’s a long-term victory, it’s also tougher to sell as meaningful as often is true regarding positive outcomes from preventive action.

Settlement announcements often carry a larger dollar figure in the headline that seem far less significant at the per capita level – especially in private litigation where law firms can claim up to a third of the payout – and while that observation isn’t meant to imply such deals aren’t meaningful, it is important to contextualize glowing quotes like the one from Moskowitz with what actually matters to the average consumer.

In other words, it’s fair to examine whether a corporate entity has been held accountable or if it’s just paid the cost for doing business.

MENTAL HEALTH COURTS: Last week, Illinois Answers and MindSite News’ Chicago bureau collaborated on a useful summary of mental health court activities across the state. There are 31 such courts in 25 counties, accounting for most of Illinois’ judicial circuits. Shaw Local shared the work (tinyurl.com/MHCbyCounty); it’s a great launching point for beginning to understand where, why and how these efforts are successful.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.