AB 489

This bill provides that if a power production plant that is exempt from property

taxes is decommissioned, and therefore becomes taxable, the county and

municipality where the plant is located will receive a utility aid payment for the first

10 years in which the plant is subject to the property tax in an amount equal to a

percentage of the utility aid payment that the county or municipality received for the

last year in which the plant was exempt. Under the bill, “decommissioned” means,

with regard to a production plant, the earliest of the following: 1) the production

plant is no longer recovered through the utility's rates; or 2) the production plant is

sold to a person who is not subject to the annual license fees imposed by the state.

Under current law, the county and municipality where a decommissioned or

closed plant is located each receive a utility aid payment for the first five years in

which the plant is subject to the property tax in an amount equal to a percentage of

the utility aid payment received for the last year in which the plant was exempt.

The bill also provides that, with regard to a power production plant that has

multiple power generation units, the utility aid payment received by a county or

municipality will not be reduced on the basis that one or more, but not all, of the

power generation units are no longer generating electricity, and the amount of the

payment will be the same as the payment received in the year before the year the first

power generation unit stopped generating electricity. In addition, the 10-year phase

out of utility aid payments under the bill does not begin until the production plant

is decommissioned, and the amounts of the phase-out payments are determined on

the basis of the amount of the payment received in the year before the year the first

power generation unit stopped generating electricity.