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Bill to reclassify power generators as businesses wins support from generators' trade groups
Summary
House Bill 696, a multi-year commission recommendation, would reclassify electric generators from utility to commercial taxation and move them onto the statewide education property tax (SWEPT); generators and hydropower groups told the committee the change would reduce duplicative assessments and litigation.
House Bill 696, grounded in a three-year study commission on electricity market structure, would reclassify non‑utility power generators for tax purposes and move them onto the statewide education property tax (often termed "SWEPT" in testimony). The sponsor and industry representatives told the Senate Ways and Means Committee the change corrects a longstanding anomaly that subjects generators to dual assessments and repeated litigation.
Representative Jordan Ellery, a House Ways and Means vice chair and a prime sponsor of HB 696, described the problem as an artifact of deregulation: "The producers of electricity are not a public…
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