PP & L v. Dept. of Rev.

775 P.2d 303, 308 Or. 49
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedMay 31, 1989
DocketOTC 2192 SC S34075
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 775 P.2d 303 (PP & L v. Dept. of Rev.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
PP & L v. Dept. of Rev., 775 P.2d 303, 308 Or. 49 (Or. 1989).

Opinion

775 P.2d 303 (1989)
308 Or. 49

PACIFIC POWER & LIGHT COMPANY, Appellant/Cross-Respondent,
v.
DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE, State of Oregon, Respondent/Cross-Appellant.

OTC 2192; SC S34075.

Supreme Court of Oregon.

Argued and Submitted March 3, 1988.
Decided May 31, 1989.

*304 Thomas H. Nelson, Portland, argued the cause for appellant/cross-respondent. With him on the brief were Leonard A. Girard and Stoel Rives Boley Jones & Grey, Portland.

James C. Wallace, Asst. Atty. Gen., Salem, argued the cause for respondent/cross-appellant. With him on the briefs was Dave Frohnmayer, Atty. Gen., Salem.

Before PETERSON, C.J., and LENT,[*] LINDE, CAMPBELL,[**] CARSON and JONES, JJ. GILLETTE, Justice, participated by listening to tapes.

GILLETTE, Justice.

This is an ad valorem tax case involving the electrical generating facilities of Pacificorp, a Maine corporation doing business as Pacific Power & Light Company (Pacific). The evidence, including testimony from several expert witnesses and over one hundred exhibits, is extensive and complex. The Tax Court found the appropriate true cash value of Pacific for Oregon ad valorem tax assessment purposes to be $2,545,951,100. PP & L v. Dept. of Rev., 10 OTR 417, 1987 WL 15946 (1987). From that determination both Pacific and the Department of Revenue (Department) appeal. On de novo review, see ORS 305.445, 19.125, we find that the true cash value of Pacific is $2,611,385,650.

The evidence suggests that Pacific is one of the most diversified electric utilities in the United States. It engages not only in electrical generation in six northwest states but also in coal mining, telecommunications, and other ventures. The electrical generation activity, which constitutes roughly half of Pacific's business, is closely regulated by the public utility commissions of each of the six states in which Pacific does business as well as by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Ad valorem taxes are levied on the true cash value of the Oregon property of Pacific. ORS 308.515(1)(a); 308.540. Because Pacific's electricity generation and distribution is integrated throughout its six-state service area, Pacific's entire system is first valued as a unit, a portion of which then is allocated to Oregon. ORS 308.550; 308.555; see also United Telephone Co. v. Dept. of Rev., 307 Or. 428, 430, 770 P.2d 43 (1989) (describing similar process for valuation of assets of telecommunications company).

*305 By regulation, Pacific's property is appraised using three different approaches to valuation. See OAR 150-308.205-A. The results then are weighted to produce a final, composite valuation. These three approaches are the comparable sales approach, the cost approach, and the income approach. OAR 150-308.205(2); see also United Telephone Co. v. Dept. of Rev., supra, 307 Or. at 432, 770 P.2d 43. Much of the record in this case is taken up with testimony concerning the way the parties' appraisal experts carried out their valuation tasks under each of these approaches, including critiques by each side of the other's methodology, analysis, and results. Many of the issues involved at that trial stage survive in this appeal. Those issues will be examined below in connection with our discussion of each of the three approaches to value.

Before we can deal with those questions, however, two preliminary matters must be considered. These involve establishing a brief glossary of terms pertinent to the balance of the opinion and answering certain procedural arguments advanced by the parties. We deal first with the glossary.

A. Glossary of Terms[1]

As a general proposition, electric utilities hold franchises from states to provide electric service to specified areas within the states. Within these areas, the utilities have a monopoly. In return for the monopoly, the utilities are permitted to charge for their products no more than is authorized by the state regulators. The regulators establish rates sufficiently high to permit investors in the utilities to realize a reasonable return on their investment, i.e., a return sufficient to attract continued investment in the utilities. The return is calculated by multiplying the value of the portion of a utility's property that is devoted to providing electric service (a figure called the "rate base") by a figure called the "rate of return," expressed as a percentage. The utility is permitted to earn its return only on property devoted to providing electric service and, in certain cases, not even all of that property (as we will explain below).

Utilities must file periodic reports with their regulators detailing the property owned or leased by the utility and the purposes to which that property is put. ORS 308.520; 308.525. Commonly, such reports will show that a utility owns property that it is not currently devoting to electric service. In addition, special regulatory accounting is required for the following types of property:

1. "Zero capital cost" property. A basic premise of regulatory philosophy is that utilities are allowed to earn a reasonable rate of return on invested capital. If property has no capital cost, however, no return is allowed. There are three types of properties pertinent to this case that are treated by the regulators as having no capital cost. First, there is property purchased with funds held for "deferred income taxes" (DIT). Federal tax laws permit depreciation of certain kinds of property to be reported at a rate accelerated more than that actually experienced by such property. Thus, the utility creates an account for DIT. The savings may be invested in many ways, including in property to produce and transmit electricity. From the point of view of the regulators, however, property purchased in this way actually costs the utility nothing, so no return needs to be earned on that property.

A second tax-related phenomenon treated the same way as is DIT for regulatory purposes is investment tax credits (ITC). These are credits given under the Internal Revenue Code for the purchase of certain kinds of property for business use. Where funds derived from such credits are used to purchase electrical generating property, regulators again keep such property out of the rate base for the same reason property purchased with DIT is excluded.

The third category of zero capital cost property is known as "contributions in aid of construction" (CIAC). Pacific is required to furnish service to any customer *306 within its service area.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

PacifiCorp v. Dept. of Rev.
Oregon Tax Court, 2023
Level 3 Communications, LLC v. Dept. of Rev.
490 P.3d 149 (Oregon Supreme Court, 2021)
Level 3 Communications LLC III v. Dept. of Rev.
23 Or. Tax 440 (Oregon Tax Court, 2019)
City of Bend v. Juniper Utility Co.
252 P.3d 341 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2011)
Citizens' Utility Board v. Public Utility Commission
962 P.2d 744 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1998)
Mentor Graphics Corp. v. Department of Revenue
12 Or. Tax 521 (Oregon Tax Court, 1993)
Union Pacific Railroad v. Department of Revenue
843 P.2d 864 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1992)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
775 P.2d 303, 308 Or. 49, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pp-l-v-dept-of-rev-or-1989.