The Marshall County Fiscal Court met today, 8-6-19, and held the first reading of Ordinance 2019-09. Ordinance No. 2019-09 is an ordinance establishing and imposing a fee on electric meters/bills to facilitate funding for Marshall County 911 and permitting electrical providers a mechanism to receive reasonable compensation for their efforts in collecting the fees. Representatives from JPEC and WKRECC, along with their attorney, spoke in opposition to the ordinance in court.
Judge Executive Kevin Neal has issued the following statement in response to their comments:
“It is disingenuous for the electrical providers to argue that they are not in the business of collecting fees for a public entity because they are already (and have been for years) collecting school taxes on gross receipts. And in that case, the providers are passing those taxes onto us as the end users. So, when you pay your electric bill, you are paying the providers’ taxes for them.”
“We can debate all day about what is a fee and what is a tax, but the case cited in our ordinance is from the Kentucky Court of Appeals upholding the validity of a 911 fee on water meters. We see no practical difference between water meters and electric meters.”
A copy of the ordinance, in its entirety, below.