Consumer Utility Tax

Overview

Review the County’s electric utility consumer tax under County Code Section 26-111 and pursuant to Virginia Code Section 58.1-3814, including, but not limited, how the non-residential consumer minimum billing charge, per kilowatt hour rate, and/or the maximum charge can be increased and how they can be increased specifically on non-residential consumers with high-energy use.  The County Executive is directed to bring back any appropriate recommendations for the Board’s consideration. Such recommendations should, where applicable, include timelines, fiscal impacts, and other pertinent impacts for Board consideration. Staff should provide revenue projections for this year, five years from now and ten years from now at cap levels of $1,000, $5,000, $10,000 and $1,000,000 per meter for industrial and commercial properties, along with any assumptions necessary to generate these estimates; other scenarios should be provided as staff deems appropriate. The proposal should also include an assessment of impacts for different commercial and industrial users, such as data centers, high-end manufacturing, restaurants and distribution centers, with attention to how effects scale by load size. Staff should outline potential approaches, using new revenue generated by these changes to eliminate the residential Consumer Utility Tax to provide direct energy bill relief to households.  The County Attorney’s Office is directed to review the information and recommendations to ensure legal compliance. When the research and work are complete, the County Executive should report back to the Board with his analysis and recommendations during a Board meeting or by memorandum, as he determines appropriate.  I would like to direct the County Executive to work with staff to provide this analysis and any recommendations in time for the next Finance and Budget Committee meeting in the fall. 

Supporting Materials

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