By Ryan Randazzo, The Republic | azcentral.com
The political advocacy group MoveOn.org has jumped into the increasingly contentious debate in Arizona regarding property taxes on leased rooftop solar panels (not to be confused with last year’s debate over solar net metering).
Arizona law exempts rooftop solar panels from property taxes. But last year, the state Department of Revenue reviewed that law and interpreted it to mean that panels people lease should be subject to property tax, because the owners, companies such as SolarCity Corp. and Sunrun Inc., don’t use the panels to generate power for themselves. The DOR sees leased panels more like merchant power plants, which pay property tax.
