Did Louisiana's utility cost-pass-through law let a fire district charge public utilities?

Plain-English summary

Fire Protection District No. 6 asked whether a statute addressing a public utility's ability to pass local payments through to its customers also authorized the district to levy and collect payments from utilities. The attorney general's office answered no in 2000.

The opinion read the statute as addressing how certain payments already owed to a political subdivision could affect utility customer charges. It emphasized the statute's express statement that it gave political subdivisions no additional taxing power. The district therefore could not rely on that provision alone to collect a payment it was not otherwise authorized to impose.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2000. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Fire district officials at the time

The opinion said the district could not use R.S. 33:4510 as an independent source of authority to levy or collect a utility payment. Any payment had to rest on authority outside that provision.

Public utilities at the time

The statute quoted in the opinion addressed circumstances in which a utility could add certain local payments to customer bills. The office said that pass-through rule did not create a local government's right to demand the payment.

Local government officials at the time

The office treated the statute's no-new-tax-authority clause as decisive. It did not decide whether another law gave the district a particular charging power.

Common questions

Q: Did this statute let a fire district impose a new charge on public utilities?
A: The 2000 opinion said no. It read the statute as giving political subdivisions no additional taxing authority.

Q: Why did the statute mention utility payments to local governments?
A: The opinion described it as a rule about when a utility could pass certain payments it made to a political subdivision on to customers.

Q: Did the opinion rule out every possible utility charge by the district?
A: No. It said this statute alone did not authorize payments the district was not otherwise empowered to levy or collect.

Background and statutory framework

The opinion quoted R.S. 33:4510 on certain utility payments to political subdivisions and possible customer billing. It relied on the provision's explicit statement that it did not grant a political subdivision authority to levy any tax beyond authority supplied by the state's constitution and statutes.

Citations and references

• R.S. 33:4510 (utility pass-through and no-new-tax-authority provision)

Source

• Landing page: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinions
• Original PDF: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinion/Download/00-0327

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain; the linked PDF is authoritative.

October 6, 2000
OPINION NUMBER 00-327

119 TAXATION - Exemptions, general Chief H. “Butch” Browning
District Six Fire Department 33:4510
7878 Prescott Road
Statute authorizing charge back of certain taxes made to
Baton Rouge, LA 70812
political subdivisions by a public utility does not authorize a
political subdivision to levy and collect payments from public
Dear Chief Browning: utilities.

You requested the opinion of this office concerning R.S. 33:4510, specifically whether under that statute Fire Protection District No. 6 (the “District”) has the authority to levy and collect payments from certain public utilities.

R.S. 33:4510 authorizes a public utility, in certain circumstances, to pass on to its customers the cost of payments, including certain taxes, which the public utility pays to political subdivisions, and provides in pertinent part as follows:

A. Whenever any political subdivision of the state of Louisiana ... shall collect or receive any payment from any public utility operating within such political subdivision ... whether such payment be called a license, occupational, privilege, franchise, or inspection tax, charge, or fee, or otherwise, the amount of such tax or payment may, to the extent that such tax or payment was not included as a part of the cost of furnishing services in the fixing of the rates and charges for such services by the Louisiana Public Service Commission, be added to the sales price of such public utility's service and billed pro rata to the utility's customers receiving local service within the political subdivision collecting such taxes or receiving such payments.

B. This Section shall not be construed as granting to any political subdivision any authority to levy any tax, other than such authority as the political subdivision already has under the constitution and statutes of Louisiana.

C. Nothing in this Section shall apply to ad valorem taxes nor to an occupational license tax ...

Page 2

Chief H. “Butch” Browning
OPINION NUMBER 00-327
Page -2-

D. The provisions of this Section shall not apply to any payments by a utility to a political subdivision in excess of five percent of the annual gross receipts of the utility from its customers within said political subdivision, whether said payments are made as a license, occupational, privilege, franchise, or inspection tax, charge, or fee, or by agreement between the utility and the political subdivision. (Emphasis added)

As stated in Paragraph B, this section does not grant to a political subdivision any additional authority to levy a tax. Accordingly, your question must be answered in the negative; R.S. 33:4510 does not authorize the District to levy and collect payments from public utilities that the District is not otherwise authorized to levy and collect.

Trusting this adequately responds to your request, we remain

Yours very truly,

RICHARD P. IEYOUB
Attorney General

BY:
MARTHA S. HESS
Assistant Attorney General

RPI/MSH

Page 3

OPINION NUMBER 00-327
Syllabus

119 TAXATION - Exemptions, general

33:4510

Statute authorizing charge back of certain taxes made to political subdivisions by a public utility does not authorize a political subdivision to levy and collect payments from public utilities.

Chief H. “Butch” Browning
District Six Fire Department
7878 Prescott Road
Baton Rouge, LA 70812

Date Received:

Date Released: October 6, 2000

Martha S. Hess
Assistant Attorney General