APS on Friday denied involvement in a bill seeking to make law the Department of Revenue’s finding leased and financed rooftop solar should be assessed for property tax purposes.
The Yellow Sheet Report (YS) says APS officials are sticking to that claim, even after one of Brewer’s top policy advisors and a lawmaker now say APS has been actively lobbying on the issue as recently as this week.
Brewer’s Director of Policy Michael Hunter told YS he has had meetings with APS officials but declined to outline the outcome APS is wants.
Meanwhile, APS lobbyist Michael Vargas said his company’s position was clear to him: “What they’ve told me is they are supportive of having the tax on it, because that’s what they have to pay.”
“APS does not have a position on this issue and is not advocating for any particular outcome,” the company maintained in a statement e-mailed to YS Friday afternoon. APS spokesman Jim McDonald said, “Any APS employee who left a different impression was expressing his or her own opinion and not that of the company,” he said.
All said, It’s believed the bill (HB 2595) is a dead duck.
