2 GOP lawmakers propose scrapping sales tax on electricity to benefit customers

_{PHOTO BY GAGE SKIDMORE/FLICKR}

By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services

Key Points:

• Bill targets $2.3 billion in taxation that some lawmakers consider overcharges 
• If approved, the state would lose $687 million in tax revenue
• Attorney general calls the plan “a scam”

Saying electric customers paid too much for years, two Republican lawmakers have a plan to pay it back — sort of — over the next 20 years.

But the $2.3 billion that Reps. David Marshall of Snowflake and Ralph Heap of Mesa want to recover would not come from the utilities that collected the money. Instead, it would come out of the money the state would have otherwise collected in sales taxes on customer bills — a move that could cut state revenue by more than $687 million.

Heap defended the plan.

“We want to do things to help the ratepayers,” he told Capitol Media Services.

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