TVA tax equivalent payments total $547 million in 2013

Submitted

KNOXVILLE—The Tennessee Valley Authority provided $547 million in tax equivalent payments in fiscal year 2013 to states and local governments where it sells electricity or has power properties.

TVA pays tax equivalent payments annually in the eight states where it sells electricity or owns generating plants, transmission lines, substations and other assets, and directly to 146 local governments where TVA owns power facilities.

“These funds provided by TVA play a significant role in supporting economic development, public services and quality of life for communities across the TVA region,” said TVA President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Johnson. “The payments are an important part of TVA’s mission to serve the nine million residents of the Tennessee Valley.”

The TVA board of directors at its Nov. 14 meeting in Oxford, Miss., approved the final tax equivalent payment for fiscal year 2013. This year’s payments were $32 million less than the record $579 million distributed in 2012.

The following payments were made to each state in fiscal year 2013:

• Alabama—$110,905,168
• Georgia—$8,375,366
• Illinois—$492,669
• Kentucky—$46,967,736
• Mississippi—$38,701,853
• North Carolina—$3,010,751
• Tennessee—$337,696,930
• Virginia—$1,259,042

The total was $547,409,515.

The TVA board also approved estimated tax equivalent payments of $522,411,306 for fiscal year 2014, which began Oct. 1. The lower estimate reflects a continuing trend of lower sales and lower revenues due to a slow economy and other factors.

TVA returns 5 percent of power sales revenues from the previous year in the form of tax equivalent payments. The funds are distributed in monthly payments, with final payments approved at the end of each fiscal year.

The payments compensate state and local governments that cannot levy property or sales taxes on TVA as a federal entity, and make TVA one of the largest “taxpayers” in Tennessee and Alabama. In addition to the seven states and many counties in the Tennessee Valley region, the state of Illinois and two of its counties receive payments for coal reserves TVA owns there.

State and local governments distribute the funds according to their own formulas and discretion to support a variety of initiatives, including schools, fire departments, and other emergency response agencies, tourism and recreation, and human service organizations.

Since 1941, TVA has made $10.9 billion in tax equivalent payments to state and local entities, with payments in the past 10 years totaling $4.6 billion.

TVA is a corporate agency of the United States that provides electricity for business customers and local power distributors serving nine million people in parts of seven southeastern states. TVA receives no taxpayer funding, deriving virtually all of its revenues from sales of electricity. In addition to operating and investing its revenues in its electric system, TVA provides flood control, navigation and land management for the Tennessee River system, and assists local power companies and state and local governments with economic development and job creation.