Local taxing districts transparency bill moves forward

Substantial changes were made to the taxing district transparency bill SB 6587. The bill requires the disclosure of tax information on utility billings using the following criteria:

• Utility districts with 10,000 or more customers will need to disclose tax information by September 1, 2018;
• Districts less than 10,000 but more than 5,000 customers will need to disclose information by January 1, 2023, or when their next billing system is upgraded, whichever comes first; and
• Districts under 5,000 customers are encouraged to disclose the information but are not required.
• Small utilities as defined by RCW 19.29A.040 providing retail electricity may voluntarily comply with the written or electronic notice of a public meeting discussing electricity rate or discloser of taxes imposed on the billing statement. A small utility is defined as less than 25,000 customers.

The bill was passed out of the Senate on a vote of 34-13 and will be heard in the House Local Government Committee on Wednesday, February 21.

While these timeline changes help utilities to comply with billing system changes, there are still concerns that six months is not enough time for the larger utilities, and there will be additional costs to comply.