Conference vmszoo::new_hampshire

    sounds like a lot of FUD.  the power companies may sue, but it doesn't
    mean they'll win.
    
    there's a little difference between power company and cable/tel.
    the power company owns the poles and rents the pole to cable/tel.
    
    It would be like a town collecting taxes from a landlord and tennet
    if they were to collect from both.
    ed
    

    RE FUD alert
    
    I disagree. The Selectmen in my town had a meeting last Sunday just
    about this. They have never had a Sunday meeting to my knowledge. 
    
    Our state Senator was there. Increasing my taxes by $89/100,000
    valuation is no small potato's
    
    Check out your cable channel that the cable Co owns and look at the
    adds. They seem pretty serious
    
    Steve

>    there's a little difference between power company and cable/tel.
>    the power company owns the poles and rents the pole to cable/tel.

I think this is incorrect.   While I think it's rare that cable companies
own poles, NYNEX owns quite a few poles.   I think the way it works is that
the state is divided into districts, and in some districts, the phone
company owns/installs poles, and in others, the electric company does.
The other guys rent from whomever owns the pole.    You can check this
yourselves - the poles have id's that tell who owns them.   I know I have
seen poles with 'NET' (New England Telephone) and other poles that say
PSNH...

Apparantly, the way the law is worded, towns can only collect property
tax from electric company owned poles.   You can see why they think it
is unfair...

    We are paying the tax already, Dr. Deuce, as part of our electrical
    utility bills.  If the tax is whacked off electrical poles, electrical
    rates should drop correspondingly, because PSNH is a regulated utility. 
    Net result, you will pay it to PSNH or you will pay it directly to the
    governmental entity in question.  TANSTAAFL.

    Should they be exempt from taxes, property or equipment? Should the pwr
    Co's pay and not telco and cable?
    
    Steve

    Both NYNEX and local cable companies said that if they are taxed on the
    polls they own, your monthy bill will rise about $3 to cover the
    additional cost.
    
    				-John

New Hampshire Municipal Association endorses pole tax

Associated Press, 04/22/97 13:49 


    CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Unless the state taxes all utility poles and wires
    - not just those owned by electric utilities - communities face endless
    lawsuits and the loss of $74 million in property taxes, the New
    Hampshire Municipal Association said Tuesday. 

    The association endorsed a Senate bill that expands the tax on poles
    and wires to include those owned by telephone and cable companies. The
    Senate could act on the bill Thursday. If it passes, it would next face
    House scrutiny. 

    Sen. Allen Whipple, D-Claremont, said expanding the tax would mean
    about $17 million in revenues to communities. 

    ``This is not a new tax. It's the equitable and constitutional
    application of an existing tax,'' said Sen. Fred King, R-Colebrook. 

    But Mike McCluskey, president of Nynex in New Hampshire, said there's
    no doubt it's a new tax. He said the state taxed the poles and wires
    until 1990, when it stopped taxing the poles and substituted a tax on
    telephone use. 

    ``That was the deal at the time,'' he said. 

    Ann McLane Kuster, speaking for the New England Cable Television
    Association, said telephone ratepayers and cable customers ultimately
    would pay the pole tax. 

    Nynex estimates the tax would mean $3 to $4 a month more for the
    average phone bill, while Continental Cablevision said taxing its wires
    could mean a monthly bill increase of up to $3. 

    ``The taxpayers are the ratepayers and the ratepayers are the
    taxpayers. It's not found money,'' Kuster said. 

    Whipple acknowledged that not all telephone or cable users own
    property, and therefore they would not all benefit from any
    community-wide break on property taxes thanks to revenues from the
    expanded tax. 

    ``They will be paying higher taxes and property taxpayers will pay
    lower taxes,'' he said. 

    The municipal association says given the telephone company's revenues,
    the impact would be negligible and could easily be absorbed by Nynex. 

    The debate was sparked by a state Supreme Court ruling in November that
    telephone poles and wires are not real property, but equipment, and
    thus are not subject to property taxes. 

    Yet state law allows municipalities to tax electric poles, which
    electric utilities see as unequal treatment. In many cases, several
    types of utilities - both taxable and non-taxable - use the same poles. 

    After the court ruled, the New Hampshire Electric Cooperative went to
    every one of the 121 towns where it pays property taxes and demanded
    its money back. The tax abatements claim the tax is unconstitutional
    because communities only tax half the pole. 

    The municipal association said it supports expanding the tax to protect
    against such lawsuits and so communities can continue to tax poles and
    wires. 

    new saw a tax they didn't like!
    
    but i doubt dropping the electric poles tax would mean any savings to
    rate payers.
    
    it would be nice to tax all poles and give breaks to underground
    utilities.  Those poles jump out in front of a lot of drivers!

A drop in the pole tax will not result in lower tax rates for PSNH customers.
They have a large debt to pay back. Rest assured their winfall will be
applied to shareholders before it makes it to the customers in the form of
lower rates.