KPLU Local News
(2010-02-08)
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SEATTLE, WA
(N3) -
A county in northeastern Washington is asking state lawmakers for help in getting more money from a Seattle utility. Seattle City Light operates Boundary Dam in Pend Oreille County. The county complains the utility doesn't pay enough to cover the dam's impact. KPLU's Doug Nadvornick reports.
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Currently, state law says public utilities that operate power plants in other counties don't have to pay property taxes. But they do have to negotiate payments that cover the impacts of those plants.
For Seattle City Light and Pend Oreille County, Washington, that arrangement has worked for nearly 50 years. But the county now has a 13-percent unemployment rate. When it asked for a lot more money in the last round of negotiations, the utility balked. At a recent state House committee hearing, Republican Representative Joel Kretz said the utility paid nothing to the county last year.
Rep. Joel Kretz: "It was negotiation by starvation. They've suspended payments to the county. We've got a county that's going to have to take loans out to meet their operating budget now because they're not getting the impact fees from the city."
The county proposes a new funding formula that would roughly double what the county's getting now.
The utility says it already pays its fair share to the county and that it can't afford any more.
I'm Doug Nadvornick reporting. © Copyright 2012, N3
