Congress should reject tax hike on families, business – Arizona Capitol Times

Corporate tax rates directly impact utility ratepayers. A line item on bills called the Tax Expense Adjustor Mechanism automatically increases, or decreases utility rates when officials in Washington increase, or decrease the federal corporate tax rate.   

As an Arizona public utility commissioner, I have seen no more direct and immediate impact to utility rates than increases and decreases to corporate tax rates at the federal level.  

In 2017, for example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act reduced the corporate tax rate by as much as 18 percentage points for some corporations. It also allowed more than 100 public utilities across the nation to return $90 billion to customers.   

This resulted in many of Arizona’s largest utility providers—including Arizona Public Service Company, Tucson Electric Power Company, EPCOR, Liberty Utilities, and Southwest Gas to pass savings directly to customers and reduce rates.   

In Arizona,…

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