Power Line Tax Update

HB3000, the Governor’s power line tax bill, passed out of the House Judiciary Committee and is now in the House Finance Committee.  The Environmental Council has submitted a request for a public hearing on the bill to the Chairman of House Finance.  We are awaiting a decision from the Chairman setting a date and time for that hearing.

The Governor’s Frankenstein monster of a tax bill was operated on in House Judiciary and has a new limb.  The operation was assisted by members of the Governor’s staff.

The Governor’s much bragged about “ratepayer relief” has now disappeared from the bill.  Here is a link to the amended version of HB3000.

Recall that on this blog, the words “ratepayer relief” were described as a clear invitation to other states to challenge the constitutionality of WV’s attempt to get around the federal rate setting mechanism that increases all of our electric rates to finance PATH and TrAIL.  I guess the legislators read The Power Line, because the “ratepayer relief fund” is gone.

So the last vestige of the Governor’s stories about free electricity and tax credits has now completely disappeared.

In its place, we now have 1/3 of the tax money from the bill going to something called the All Counties and Municipalities Transmission Line Revenue Fund.  This new limb sewn onto Frankenstein distributes the tax money to all counties and cities in WV based on population.  Like the Crossed Counties Fund, the money will be spent on infrastructure projects by County Commissions, but all spending will be controlled from Charleston by the State Tax Commissioner.

The Judiciary Committee did add one good amendment to the bill.  The bill now requires the power companies to provide written notice to all land owners within 1/4 mile of the center line of the proposed power line right of way.

Those are the main changes to a very ugly bill.  Several County Commissioners have told us that the most recent newsletter of the County Commissioners’ Association has criticised HB3000.  The bill was supposed to get the state’s Commissioners behind the Governor’s power line tax, but it looks like that didn’t work either.

As soon as the date and time of the public hearing on HB3000 are published, we will post them here.  It looks like the hearing will be either Friday or Saturday, but it could be scheduled at the last minute for Thursday.  Come on down to Charleston and speak your piece.  You have 3 minutes to testify and tell the Delegates what you think of our tricky Governor’s plan to help the power companies destroy our land.