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July 28, 2005

Tax Bill Finally Going to the House Floor

It has been a long and winding road for Senate Bill 408, the utility tax reform bill CUB and others helped write and move through the halls of the Capitol. Finally, however, after several revisions and much political wrangling, it looks as though the bill, which already passed the Senate, will have a floor vote in the Oregon House of Representatives. We expect the vote to occur sometime Saturday.

The Salem Statesman Journal ran this inset to a larger article (found on our Current News page) yesterday:

Big utilities are reimbursed for their tax obligation but avoid actually paying those taxes. In five years, PGE, Pacific Power and NW Natural have collected almost $1 billion from Oregon customers to defray the taxes they don't pay.

Supporters say: The bill should lower energy bills for ratepayers. By keeping that money in Oregon and lowering employer costs, the bill also should create jobs.

We hope to be back here next week, telling you that the bill passed and Oregon ratepayers will no longer be paying a surcharge on their bills, a cost that was supposed to be a valid tax, but was never passed along to the taxing government entity.

Posted by Oregon CUB at July 28, 2005 03:27 PM

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