RALEIGH – The Richmond County Daily Journal had an interesting story Wednesday that may not have made the rounds in North Carolina political circles yet, though it did make the AP wire (read it here http://www.heraldsun.com/state/6-257290.html)
Angry at repeated swipes at their franchise-tax revenues by Gov. Mike Easley, several North Carolina municipalities are seeking to collect their local taxes on electric utilities directly rather than leaving it up to the state to collect, as has long been the practice. After all, if your collection agency keeps running off with the unpaid bills you hired it to collect, rather than turning them over to you, you’d probably not stand for it, either.
Progress Energy unit Carolina Power & Light is suing to stop these municipalities from levying the franchise tax, since it would seem to be layered on top of the state collection and thus constitute double-taxation. OK, that makes sense, too.
What doesn’t make sense is the conflicting stories that CP&L and Easley’s Revenue Secretary, Norris Tolson, are telling about the lawsuit. CP&L says that before filing its suit, it consulted Tolson’s department, receiving an opinion that Attorney Gen. Roy Cooper had given the department making the double-taxation argument. Tolson says that didn’t happen.
Could be a minor discrepancy, but CP&L says that the opinion they received from Revenue was “instrumental” (in the Daily Journal’s words) in deciding to pursue the matter in court. Did Tolson and Cooper work together to generate legal assistance to a private company planning to sue duly constituted local governments? Would that be a legitimate use of their power?