HB 170: Industrial Facilities
2007 General Session

Sponsor: Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Interim Committee

HB 170 would have created another exemption to the state sales tax, this time for pollution control equipment installed on old power plants or other industrial facilities to reduce their environmental impacts and to meet environmental standards. Utilities and owners of other industrial facilities would have been allowed to install scrubbers, filtration systems and other equipment without paying the four percent state sales tax. Any additional sales taxes imposed by the county (up to the maximum allowed two percent) would still have been collected.

An annual report would have been required, to include an employment history in the facility specifying the number of full- and part-time employees and the rate of employee turnover, a history of wages and benefits disaggregated by gender for each job category, and a history of state taxes paid by the company. The Public Service Commission would have annually reviewed the impact of the sales tax exemption on existing retail public utility rates in Wyoming.

This sales tax exemption would have reduced state tax revenue by an estimated $1.7 million every year for the next 8 years, when the provision would have expired (unless a future legislature extended it).

The ESPC opposes sales tax exemptions that target specific industries, noting that large companies such as utilities have the resources to pay sales taxes on equipment purchases without difficulty, and the potential savings to ratepayers from the tax savings for the utilities would be unobservable. Opponents noted that the decision to install pollution control upgrades is largely driven by government regulation (and occasionally by public pressure), and the relatively small amount saved by this sales tax exemption would almost certainly not be an incentive that would persuade a utility to install such equipment. So utilities would save money on something they were going to do anyway, at the expense of state revenue, and with no benefit to ratepayers.

The Chair of the House Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee, Representative Thomas Lockhart (R-H57, Casper), tabled HB 170 without a vote.

LINKED TO HB 170 AS INTRODUCED

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