|
|
Enron Mail |
The following is a press release from Assembly Member Ellen Corbett
regarding her new windfall profits tax bill ABX 128 which will probably be heard in committee following the Easter break. For Immediate Release Contact: Rebecca Nieto April 4, 2001 (916) 319-2018 Corbett Introduces Windfall Profits Tax Measure SACRAMENTO =01) Responding to increasing electricity rates and the continuing threat of rolling blackouts, Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee Chair Ellen Corbett (D-San Leandro) today introduced a windfall profits tax measure intended to help restore sanity to the pricing of electricity in California. The bill, AB 128X, imposes an electrical power generation windfall profits tax on the windfall profits realized by power generators, their affiliates, and the middlemen who participate in California's energy market. However, in recognition of the fact that some generators are cooperatively working with the state by holding their costs down, the measure is targeted at generators whose gross receipts significantly exceed the cost these entities incur to produce the energy they sell. "We cannot continue to pay the exorbitant rates that are currently being charged in today's marketplace. Consumers and small businesses are seeing their energy rates skyrocket. The state is spending $45 million per day to help meet demand. We are looking toward a summer of rolling blackouts. Yet, we continue to allow some electricity generators and middlemen to reap enormous profits on their sales of electricity into the state. This profiteering must stop, and AB 128X will help us ensure that it does." The windfall profits tax measure imposes an add-on tax equal to a set percentage of the gross receipts derived from the sale of electrical power into the state. The measure also targets middlemen who have been able to game the electricity market by buying up supply and reselling it at much higher rates. AB 128X hits these middlemen by taxing the receipts they realize from excessively high markups. "As Chair of a working group charged with developing a windfall profits tax, I look forward to working with my colleagues on moving this measure through the Legislature."
|