Relief could be on the way for Pennsylvanians frustrated by soaring electric bills after the state House unanimously passed a bill supporters say would cut utility costs by nearly 6 percent.
House Bill 22-24 was originally written to limit the amount of profits utility companies receive. State Rep. Carl Walker Metzgar, R-69th District, added an amendment that would eliminate the gross receipts tax on electricity — a charge he said is about 6 percent on customers’ electric bills that goes to the state’s general fund.
“I thought that everybody could agree on it, and that was to eliminate the gross receipt tax on electricity, so on your electric bill, everyone’s electric bill, there’s roughly a 6% tax that goes to the government, state government, general fund, on everybody’s bill, and my amendment eliminates that tax altogether,” Metzgar said.
Lawmakers from both parties said the measure would provide immediate relief if it becomes law. Rep. Frank Burns, D-72nd District, said rising costs are a frequent concern among constituents.
“Look, nearly every day people come into my office with concerns on how they’re going to pay their bills. I know firsthand people are out there struggling, and I know that we can do more here in Harrisburg to ease the burden on those families and those people,” Burns said.
Rep. Jim Rigby, R-71st District, said the bill would put money back into consumers’ pockets.
“I would think anybody would welcome a little more money in their pocket than in ours or in in the utility Companies pocket. So, you know this bill does it it puts a little bit of money back to the to the user,” Rigby said.
Legislators said that if the bill becomes law, it would be the largest tax break in Pennsylvania history. Several lawmakers emphasized it would be only one step toward addressing broader energy affordability issues.
Rep. Paul Takac, D-82nd District, said lawmakers are also looking at expanding renewable energy sources to reduce exposure to global market swings.
“We’re looking at trying to expand renewable energy sources to create domestic supplies that aren’t subject to world market and the fluctuations and the increases there. So I think it’s a multi pronged approach to try and address the affordability issues that folks are really facing,” Takac said.
Rep. Mike Armanini, R-75th District, argued the state needs additional generation capacity, including natural gas.
“We need to build new natural gas, possibly even cold generating facilities in Pennsylvania to keep up with demand. Right now, nuclear is a great additional source, but some of these are just not there yet and you can’t do everything with renewables because the amount of area, surface area that you would need for the amount of wattage we need is crazy,” Armanini said.
Some lawmakers also raised concerns about the potential impact of data centers on electricity rates. Burns called data centers “one of the biggest issues Pennsylvania faces,” and said he supported steps to limit their effect on ratepayers.
“Just this week I voted to put a moratorium on the data centers. And also I voted to require them to generate their own electricity so they would have zero impact on the ratepayers and zero impact on people’s bills,” Burns said.
House Bill 22-24 now moves to the state Senate. House members said if senators pass it and the governor signs it, consumers would see immediate relief.
“I think they will, it’s just a common sense bill seeing how we put it through bipartisan 100 percent again it protects our constituents our citizens of the Commonwealth it helps them out financially,” Rigby said.
Takac said he believes lawmakers can work together on both short-term and longer-term changes to rein in energy costs.
“And I’m confident that working together we can actually address some of these concerns, which many of us hope are short term, but there’s also some structural changes that we can make that hopefully will slow the runaway costs of energy that we’re seeing and get them back under control and make sure that that benefits consumers and not just large corporations,” Takac said.
Meantime, the state Senate has approved legislation containing similar tax relief for utility customers. The bill would also repeal the state’s gross receipts tax — a move backers estimate would save ratepayers about $1.7 billion this year.
The Senate-approved measure also increases funding for the Educational Improvement Tax Credit scholarship program by $25 million and creates a sales tax holiday for school supplies. It now returns to the Pennsylvania House for final consideration before it can be sent to Gov. Josh Shapiro.