Bill on registration of vehicles used by utilities clears House
By Mike Lange
Staff Writer
AUGUSTA – A bill backed by Rep. Norman Higgins (R-Dover-Foxcroft) to require utilities to register their vehicles and pay excise taxes in the towns where they’re assigned passed the Maine House easily last week.
LD 514 sailed through the House on a 141-3 vote and faces final action in the Senate.
Higgins said that Central Maine Power’s estimated fees would be $8,142 in Dover-Foxcroft and FairPoint Communications would pay approximately $1,161. The law would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2017.
There was very little opposition to the bill at last week’s public hearing as Joel Harrington of Central Maine Power said that legislative action was long overdue.
“The way the law is constructed now, communities that are fortunate to have the corporate headquarters of a public utility receive millions each year in property taxes for buildings and property located in the community, and also receive 100 percent of the excise tax revenue for vehicles that may not necessarily be located in that community,” Harrington said.
This year, Central Maine Power Company paid $300,134 to the city of Augusta in excise taxes for all of its 494 vehicles, no matter where they’re garaged, Harrington added.
As expected, one of the opponents of the LD 514 was Bill Bridgeo, Augusta’s city manager. “Requiring a utility to register its fleet of vehicles in 15 or 20 municipalities instead of one is still more costly and burdensome and the quarter-million dollar financial hit Augusta would take is still daunting,” Bridgeo said. “But we understand that our sister communities are also struggling financially, especially given the negative impacts of other state budget policies.”
Bridgeo said that if the bill was passed, he hoped there would be time “to allow us to prepare for the disproportionate loss of revenue and to implement the law gradually.”
But Jim Cohen of Emera Maine said his company supported the legislation since “it best promotes the fair allocation of excise tax revenue among our vehicles in the communities we serve.”
Cohen cited one specific case where one community received a windfall and another has lost revenue just because of his company’s reorganization.
“On Jan 1, 2014, Bangor Hydro and Maine Public Service merged to become Emera Maine,” Cohen told the Taxation Committee. “Although Emera Maine maintains a company presence in Presque Isle and the physical location of vehicles remains the same, Presque Isle lost about $20,000 a year in revenues simply because under the new structure, Presque Isle is no longer the ‘corporate’ office.
The bill was introduced by Rep. Andrew Buckland (R-Farmington) and co-sponsored by several members of both parties including Sen. Paul Davis (R-Sangerville), Sen. Dave Miramant (D-Camden), Rep. Jeff McCabe (D-Skowhegan) and Rep. Carol McElwee (R-Caribou).
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