Amendment #64 to H4000

Municipality Reimbursement

Mrs. Haddad of Somerset move to amend the bill by inserting the following section:

SECTION XXXX. (a) Notwithstanding any general law or special law to the contrary, the department of energy resources shall expend an amount not to exceed $3,000,000 from the RGGI Auction Trust Fund established in section 35II of chapter 10 of the General Laws for a 1-time reimbursement to a municipality that has been negatively impacted by a reduction in property tax receipts from a dual coal and oil fired electric generating station due to a reduction in capacity factor, occurring after July 1, 2012. The municipality shall be entitled to reimbursement under this section of an amount by which the tax receipts, including payments in lieu of taxes or other compensation, paid by the affected property owner of the electric generating station in tax year 2014 is less than the amount of the tax receipts paid by the electric generating station in 2013. Before reimbursement to a municipality under this section, the municipality and the affected property owner of the electric generating station shall negotiate in good faith payments in lieu of taxes or other compensation for subsequent years; but if the municipality and the affected property owner of the electric generating station have not negotiated in good faith payments in lieu of taxes and other compensation, then the facility’s tax obligation shall be determined by an independent third party assessor paid by the facility but selected jointly by the municipality and the affected property owner of the electric generating station or, if they are unable to arrive at a joint selection, by the department of revenue.