State legislator wants details on closed-door ruling

Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, said Monday he has asked legislative analysts to study the potential effect of a Nevada Tax Commission ruling exempting Southern California Edison from sales tax traditionally charged on the coal it burned in its Southern Nevada power plant.

The commission voted Monday to provide analysts with information from the controversial closed-door hearing that resulted in a $40 million rebate for the coal burned between 2001 and 2003.

Keith Munro, chief of staff to Gov. Kenny Guinn, said Guinn would sign an order releasing the data to legislative analysts.

The closed-door hearing for Southern California Edison resulted in a lawsuit by the Attorney General's Office arguing that decision must be overturned because the session violated Nevada's open-meeting law. The suit asks Carson District Judge Mike Griffin to throw out the rebate and force the commission to deliberate and vote in public.

The tax commission has traditionally closed its meetings when discussions involve proprietary corporate financial information.

Townsend said he wants to know how much those rebates could cost the state if applied to all the years the Laughlin power plant operated. In addition, he pointed out Sierra Pacific has operated a coal-fired generating station at Valmy in Central Nevada for more than 20 years.

Townsend said his concern goes deeper because "you could probably make a pretty good case for hydrocarbon fuels, too." If the same interpretation applied to other fuels such as natural gas, Townsend said the rebates would be much larger, and hit not only the state but schools and local governments, too.

At the same time, he said, it would potentially give Nevadans a break on their future energy costs.

"If this ruling stands, that's a 7 percent reduction for customers," he said.

In any event, he said lawmakers need to know the potential impact.

Munro agreed the issue needs to be studied so Guinn and lawmakers know what financial impact that interpretation of the law could have.

-- Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.