Bill Text: NH HB1661 | 2020 | Regular Session | Introduced


Bill Title: Relative to the exemption from property taxes for water and air pollution control facilities.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-02-20 - Reconsider (Rep. Oxenham): Motion Failed DV 105-244 02/20/2020 House Journal 5 P. 9 [HB1661 Detail]

Download: New_Hampshire-2020-HB1661-Introduced.html

HB 1661-FN-LOCAL - AS INTRODUCED

 

 

2020 SESSION

20-2628

05/06

 

HOUSE BILL 1661-FN-LOCAL

 

AN ACT relative to the exemption from property taxes for water and air pollution control facilities.

 

SPONSORS: Rep. Cushing, Rock. 21; Rep. Walz, Merr. 23; Rep. Edgar, Rock. 21

 

COMMITTEE: Science, Technology and Energy

 

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ANALYSIS

 

This bill provides that no electric generating plant that uses fossil fuels or generates high level radioactive waste shall be eligible for the property tax exemption for water and air pollution control facilities under RSA 72:12-a.

 

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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.

Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]

Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

20-2628

05/06

 

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

 

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty

 

AN ACT relative to the exemption from property taxes for water and air pollution control facilities.

 

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

 

1  Property Taxes; Water and Air Pollution Control Facilities; Exemption.  Amend RSA 72:12-a, I to read as follows:

I.  Any person, firm, or corporation which builds, constructs, installs, or places in use in this state any treatment facility, device, appliance, or installation wholly or partly for the purpose of reducing, controlling, or eliminating any source of air or water pollution shall be entitled to have the value of said facility and any real estate necessary therefor, or a percentage thereof determined in accordance with this section, exempted from the taxes levied under this chapter for the period of years in which the facility, device, appliance, or installation is used in accordance with the provisions of this section.  This paragraph shall not apply to privately-owned landfills or ancillary facilities located at such landfills, to any electric generating plant that uses fossil fuels or generates high level radioactive waste, or to sewage disposal systems installed pursuant to RSA 485-A:29 through RSA 485-A:44 and rules adopted pursuant thereto, except that any exemption for a sewage disposal system granted prior to January 1, 2010 shall remain in effect.

2  Effective Date.  This act shall take effect April 1, 2021.

 

LBAO

20-2628

12/17/19

 

HB 1661-FN-LOCAL- FISCAL NOTE

AS INTRODUCED

 

AN ACT relative to the exemption from property taxes for water and air pollution control facilities.

 

FISCAL IMPACT:      [ X ] State              [    ] County               [ X ] Local              [    ] None

 

 

 

Estimated Increase / (Decrease)

STATE:

FY 2020

FY 2021

FY 2022

FY 2023

   Appropriation

$0

$0

$0

$0

   Revenue

$0

$0

Indeterminable Increase

Indeterminable Increase

   Expenditures

$0

$0

$0

$0

Funding Source:

  [    ] General            [ X ] Education            [    ] Highway           [    ] Other

 

 

 

 

 

LOCAL:

 

 

 

 

   Revenue

$0

$0

$0

$0

   Expenditures

$0

$0

Indeterminable

Indeterminable

 

The Public Utilities Commission was originally contacted on October 29, 2019 for a fiscal note worksheet, which they have not provided as of December 17, 2019.

 

METHODOLOGY:

This bill provides that no electric generating plant that uses fossil fuels or generates high level radioactive waste shall be eligible for the property tax exemption for water and air pollution control facilities under RSA 72:12-a.  The Department of Revenue Administration indicates the exemption applies to both local property taxation and the Utility Property Tax (UPT) under RSA 83-F.  Although the bill would increase local revenues from certain electric generating plants, it would not increase local revenues overall.  With an effective date of April 1, 2021, state revenue from the from the UPT would increase in FY 2022 as these electric generating plants would no longer be entitled to the exemption.  Revenue from the UPT is deposited in the Education Trust Fund.  The Department cannot determine the amount of increase as the value of the water and air pollution control facilities located at these electric generating plants on April 1, 2021 cannot be calculated.  The Department indicates, in the 2018 tax year the total value of this exemption was about $1.54 million, of which $1.42 million was from water and air pollution control facilities located at these electric generating plants using fossil fuels or generating high level radioactive waste.

 

The New Hampshire Municipal Association indicates this exemption would shift the property tax burden among taxpayers within an affected municipality.  If the exemption is repealed, the affected municipalities would not necessarily realize a net increase in revenue, but the additional taxes paid on the previously exempt property could be used either to support additional appropriations or to reduce the local tax rate for all other taxpayers, or a combination of both. Because this would be up to each municipality, the Association cannot estimate the effect on revenue or expenditures.  Repealing the exemption also would affect the payment of county taxes by any municipality affected by the exemption, as well as any other municipality in the same county.  County taxes are divided among municipalities based upon their equalized valuation and suspending an exemption would increase the affected municipality's equalized valuation and thus increase its proportionate share of the county tax burden.  Other municipalities in the same county without  property subject to the exemption would see a reduction in their share of the county tax.  Similar effects may occur with respect to school taxes in cooperative school districts, depending upon the funding formula.  The Association does not have sufficient information to estimate the dollar impacts on county or school taxes.

 

AGENCIES CONTACTED:

Public Utilities Commission, New Hampshire Municipal Association and Department of Revenue Administration

 

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