While the City of Portland blows millions, on its way to blowing billions, all in the vain hope of taking over Portland General Electric, two members of the Oregon legislature have dropped in a bill that would eliminate some of the most egregious shenanigans conducted by PGE's former owner, Enron. Here's the press release:

SALEM -- Rep. Greg Macpherson (D-Lake Oswego) and Rep. Jeff Barker (D-Aloha) introduced legislation Wednesday that would require investor-owned utilities to pay the actual amount of state corporate income taxes for which they bill their customers.

"Our legislation says to investor-owned utilities, 'If you collect money from Oregonians to pay your state income taxes, you must pay the state the money you collect,'" Macpherson said. "In the past, some utilities have set rates that assumed much higher taxes than they actually paid. Rather than refund that money to rate payers, they simply kept it. This bill is about truth in utility rates."

Macpherson and Barker developed their bill after a legislative committee considered Senate Bill 408, which tried to address the issue of taxes covered in utility rates and the actual taxes that utilities pay to local, state and federal governments. The Oregon Constitution, however, requires that tax bills originate in the House of Representatives, rather than the Senate.

Macpherson explained that requiring utilities to pay Oregon income taxes on the basis of what they collect from customers would generate substantial additional revenue, possibly tens of millions a year. "Every extra tax dollar that the utilities pay is an extra dollar toward a full school year, home care for needy senior citizens, putting state troopers back on the road, and waging the war on methamphetamine," Macpherson said.

"Oregonians need the assurance that their utility payments go where they're supposed to go," Barker said. "It's just plain wrong if a utility over-estimates its Oregon tax liability, and subsequently over-bills Oregon's customers to cover that liability. It's doubly wrong if that money disappears before it gets to the state."

Barker said his and Macpherson's proposal responds to the experience of Portland General Electric (PGE) during the late 1990's, when the utility billed rate payers to cover its Oregon corporate income taxes. When PGE's parent company, ENRON, sustained losses on other operations, the companies' consolidated tax return showed that the losses offset the taxes owed to Oregon, which meant that they paid only the state corporate minimum tax -- just $10.

Barker's and Macpherson's legislation would apply only to the future, not to the years when ENRON filed consolidated tax returns with PGE. The bill now awaits referral to a House committee.

Let's let PGE become a Portland-based public company again. It would be one of the few we have left!