Replacing Property Taxes on Utility Generation with Revenues from a Carbon-Based Tax: a Minnesota Tax Shift Opportunity I

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Replacing Property Taxes on Utility Generation with Revenues from a Carbon-Based Tax: a Minnesota Tax Shift Opportunity I Memo: To: Michael Noble, ME3 From: John Bailey, David Morris, ILSR (Tel: 612-379-3815) Date: 11/15/98 Re: Replacing Property Taxes on Utility Generation With Revenues from a Carbon-Based Tax: A Minnesota Tax Shift Opportunity I. Introduction Electric utilities in Minnesota pay four types of taxes: income tax, franchise fee (or gross receipts tax), sales tax, property tax.1 The total amount paid in each category is shown in Table 1. In 1995, the total came to $375 million. Table 1. Electric Utility Tax Paid in Minnesota in 1995 Property Tax MN Sales Tax MN Income Tax Franchise Fee Total NSP $152,078,365 $65,076,000 $31,709,000 $25,505,000 $274,368,365 Minnesota Power $34,706,493 $5,963,664 $3,843,817 $700,000 $45,213,974 Otter Tail $7,152,715 $4,197,450 $1,370,067 $233,643 $12,953,875 Interstate $3,670,381 $1,935,124 $573,770 $569,969 $6,749,244 Anoka Elec. Coop $3,179,055 $4,658,862 $0 $534,379 $8,372,296 Dakota Elec. Assoc. $4,742,500 $4,487,719 $0 $144,025 $9,374,244 Cooperative Power $7,095,000 $0 $0 $0 $7,095,000 United Power Assoc. $10,827,954 $0 $5,000 $0 $10,832,954 Total $223,452,463 $86,318,819 $37,501,654 $27,687,016 $374,959,952 Source: Minnesota Department of Public Service, 1996 Energy Policy and Conservation Report, December 1996 Recently, Minnesota has re-examined the utility tax structure in light of the restructuring of electricity occurring throughout the country. The rationale for this re-examination is that if Minnesota were to deregulate its electricity sector, customers would be able to buy electricity from any supplier. If taxes were imposed on in-state power plants but not on out-of-state suppliers, it would result in a competitive disadvantage to in-state generators.2 Of the many taxes imposed on electricity and electric utilities, several will not play an important role in a restructured electricity future. Sales tax, for example, is imposed on the customer of electricity and would be collected whether the power is generated outside or inside the state. The income tax might represent a competitive disadvantage, but virtually all states impose a corporate income tax and thus the differential would probably be slight or non-existent. 1 Utilities also pay payroll taxes, which are ignored for purposes of this report. 2 The assumption is that the generation plant tax is high enough to offset the cost of transporting electricity across state lines. The personal property tax, or tax on utility equipment, is equivalent to $.00153 or .153 cents per kwh. Transmission rates vary substantially. A previous calculation by ILSR estimated transmission costs of sending electricity from Iowa or North Dakota into Minnesota populated areas as .03 to .19 cents per kWh. Thus it appears that the current personal property tax is nearly the same to five times the cost of transmitting electricity from out-of-state. See John Bailey and David Morris, Taxing Wind Energy in Minnesota, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, January 1995 1 Much of the attention has focused on the utility property tax. Taxes are imposed on utility generators, buildings, transmission and distribution lines. Table 2 breaks down the amount paid in Minnesota by IOUs, Cooperatives and municipal utilities in various categories. A restructured electricity system would continue the monopoly on transmission and distribution lines. Thus the taxes on T&D lines and related equipment and buildings would be imposed on both out-of-state and in-state suppliers. The focus has thus been on the utility personal property tax, that is, the tax on generation attached machinery. Table 2: Distribution of Property Tax by Ownership and Use (taxes payable in 1997) Net Tax Percent of Utility Type Property Type (million $) Total Tax Investor-Owned Generation of Electricity Structures $16.3 6.94% Attached Machinery $68.2 29.03% Transmission/Distribution Land and Buildings $6.7 2.85% Attached Machinery $17.5 7.45% Transmission/Distribution Lines $70.7 30.10% Cooperatives Generation of Electricity Structures $3.1 1.32% Attached Machinery $7.5 3.19% Transmission/Distribution Land and Buildings $4.6 1.96% Attached Machinery $12.9 5.49% Transmission/Distribution Lines $21.4 9.11% Municipal Power Agencies* Generation Attached Machinery $6.0 2.55% Total $234.9 100.00% * This data set is adapted from Minnesota House of Representatives House Research Department report Public Utility Property Taxation, December 1997. The original table included Municipal Power Agencies in the numbers for IOU's. We have separated out Municipals based on House Research estimates. 2 Total property taxes paid by utilities were $235 million in 1997, equivalent to about 0.46 cents per kWh if paid equally by all electricity customers in the state. Utility property tax revenues provide a not insubstantial percentage of money to local governments. This is especially true for those counties which are host to power plants. In 1995 Goodhue County, for example, received 48 percent of its revenue from utility property taxes. Itasca County received 33 percent, Sherburne 37 percent and Wright 27 percent. Franchise fees imposed by municipalities range from 1-8 percent of utility gross revenues and generate 5 percent of total muncipal revenue in cities like Albert Lea, Moorhead, and West St. Paul.3 States that have already restructured their electric regulatory systems to allow for retail customer choice of electricity suppliers have also restructured their utility tax system (see Appendix). Most have proposed to replace property taxes with a flat kilowatt-hour charge on the distribution of electricity. Some have eliminated local franchise fees and state utility income taxes and substituted a charge on electricity to make up the difference. Such a replacement tax or fee on the distribution system allows local governments to receive the same revenue they did before restructuring.Such changes in utility taxation avoids the in- state/out-of-state differential that could occur if the current locality-based tax system had continued. Recently, Minnesota's investor-owned utilities have been trying to change the way local governments assess property tax on electric generating equipment and transmission lines. The proposals would replace some or all of the utility property taxes with a charge on electricity use. The latest form of the legislation focused only on eliminating the personal property tax on utility generation equipment (known as attached machinery). This component represents about $82 million of the total property taxes paid by electric utilities. The legislation had provisions for replacement revenues for local taxing districts through charges on electricity usage until year 2009, when the fees would be phased-out completely. Minnesota Senate File No. 3377 introduced during the 1998 legislative session contained the following provisions with respect to the personal property tax on utilities. • electric utility's generation equipment is exempted from property tax assessment • a generation equipment personal property tax replacement surcharge will be appear as a separate item on electric bill • the surcharge rate per kWh is determined by the ratio of the 1998 personal property tax levied on generation equipment minus any in-lieu taxes to the total kWhs of all electricity use in the service area. • the surcharge as calculated above remains in place until the year 2005. Between April 1, 2005, and March 31, 2009, the surcharge rate will be reduced from the 1998 level by 20 percent each year. • the utilities subject to the replacement surcharge will collect the money into a special account and distribute these revenues to the PUC within 30 days prior to when property taxes are due. 31996 Energy Policy and Conservation Report, Study of Minnesota Taxes Paid by Electric Utilities and the Implications of Utility Tax Assessments. Attachment 4, page 3-5. We should point out that in the future, these percentages should decline. While property tax revenue from non-utility firms and households will rise, personal property tax revenue from utilities will decline. The reason is that the tax is on the value of the equipment and the equipment is depreciated. The current state formula that determines the value of a utility's personal property uses the cost of the property to account for 75% of the total. The cost is affected by depreciation, but is limited to a maximum depreciation of 60% of the utility plant value. Thus the revenue from a utility plant will decline by about 30 percent as it is depreciated. 3 • the PUC will apportion the money to the appropriate county treasurers, who will distribute the money to the respective local taxing districts. Thus a tax shift regarding utility taxes is well underway. ME3 has previously aggressively pursued a broad revenue-neutral ecological tax shift. It seems appropriate to introduce the concept of an ecological tax shift into the utility restructuring debate. Indeed, one could argue that such a tax shift could and should occur even without electric restructuring. An ecological tax shift is more defensible than a sales tax on electricity based on electricity consumption for three reasons: 1) it internalizes the true costs of power generation with tax levels that are in the range of the externality values adopted by the PUC; 2) it is consistent with the legislature's stated goal of maximizing the use of renewable resources and minimizing environmental degradation; 3) it makes concrete Minnesota's commitment to reducing greenhouse gases, consistent with the stated declaration of Presidents Bush and Clinton. If the personal property tax on electric utilities' generation equipment were replaced by a carbon tax, the tax would come to about $6.70 per ton of carbon emitted4 ($1.83 per ton of carbon dioxide).
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