Tax Law Savings Eyed For Gulf Power Customers
February 7, 2018
Florida regulators Tuesday began moving forward with a process to determine how utility customers should benefit from the federal tax overhaul.
Electric companies such as Gulf Power, gas and private water and wastewater utilities are expected to pass tax savings from the overhaul to customers, and the Florida Public Service Commission will oversee how much — and when — the money will flow through.
Gulf Power, Duke Energy, Tampa Electric and Florida Public Utilities Co. entered into rate settlements last year that address the issue of passing through tax savings to customers, though those agreements were negotiated before Congress and President Donald Trump approved the tax-cut package in December.
In recent weeks, Duke, Tampa Electric and Florida Power & Light have announced that they will use tax savings to avoid billing customers for Hurricane Irma and other storm restoration costs, a total estimated tab that tops $1.9 billion. The Public Service Commission on Tuesday signed off on Duke’s plan to shield customers from getting hit with $513 million in storm costs.
Jeff Stone, general counsel of Gulf Power, said the Pensacola-based utility is working to move forward with savings for its customers by March 1. Unlike Duke, Tampa Electric and FPL, Gulf was largely spared damage from Hurricane Irma in September.
The federal tax changes include reducing the corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. But the law and utility finances are complex. Jon Moyle, a lawyer for the Florida Industrial Power Users Group, said Tuesday that money should come back to customers “sooner rather than later” and that it be clear how the savings flow.
Moyle, whose group includes large commercial electricity users, said he doesn’t want to see the money “mushed together with a bunch of other stuff, and then somebody wakes up a couple of years from now and says, ‘Hey, where did that tax reform savings ever show up?’ “
Moyle’s comments drew a reply from John Butler, an attorney for FPL, which recently said it would use tax savings to cover about $1.3 billion in storm costs that otherwise likely would have been passed on to customers.
“FPL is not mushing,” Butler said. “We are going to use not only all of one year’s tax savings but multiple years’ tax savings to replenish the reserve for the $1.3 billion write-off that we were able to take. And by doing that, we were able to get tax savings to customers in the form of forgoing what otherwise would have been a storm-cost recovery surcharge as close to immediately as I think is possible.”
The Public Service Commission approved moving forward with a process that will start Thursday with staff members meeting with electric utilities. Meetings will follow next week with gas, water and wastewater utilities.
Commission lawyer Suzanne Brownless said each utility has a “unique financial situation.” Ultimately, parties, including representatives of consumers and businesses, will be able to take part in legal “discovery” to delve into information about the implications of the tax changes for each utility.
“These tax law changes are very complex,” Public Service Commission member Julie Brown said. “I envision that we will have a process or proceedings, plural, to ensure the full transparency and accuracy of all the savings that will accrue to the customers.”
by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida with contribution from NorthEscambia.com
Bratt Road Bridge To Remain Closed For Months Before Work Begins
February 7, 2018
As of Tuesday, the Bratt Road Bridge over Canoe Creek has been closed for two months, and a county official said it may be the end of the year before work begins on a replacement bridge.
A county spokesperson said the Florida Department of Transportation is set to let a contract to replace the bridge in September. Once construction begins, it will take up to about 90 days to install a temporary bridge and open it to traffic, subject to weather delays, according to Joy Tsubooka, Escambia County public information officer.
Once the temporary bridge is opened, construction will begin on a new permanent concrete bridge.
The current wooden-support bridge was constructed in 1956 and was closed by FDOT December 6 after it failed an inspection.
The bridge averaged 425 vehicles per day prior to closure.
Pictured: The Bratt Road bridge over Canoe Creek as seen on Tuesday afternoon. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Ernest Ward Middle Announces History Fair Winners
February 7, 2018
Winners have been announced from the recent Ernest Ward Middle School History Fair. Each will now advance to the district history fairs.
Winners’ names are listed below under each project photo.
Kyle Blanton — “The Battle of Yorktown”
No Power For Seven Hours: Truck Pulls Down Power Lines, Snaps Utility Poles
February 7, 2018
About 30 Gulf Power company customers were without power for hours Tuesday in the Perdido Lake Road area of Cantonment when a sanitation company boom truck contacted power lines. The boom then pulled down wires and snapped multiple utility poles about 2:30 p.m., according to reports.
Power was restored by 10 p.m.
Additionally, cable and telephone lines were reported to be downed. There were no injuries.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click enlarge.
Senators Look To Remove Confederate Holidays
February 7, 2018
After more than a century, birthdays of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and Confederate President Jefferson Davis, along with a Confederate Memorial Day, would no longer be legal holidays in Florida under a bill approved by a Senate committee Tuesday.
Over the objections of people who argued the proposal (SB 224) would erase Southern history, the Senate Community Affairs Committee voted 4-2 — without debate or discussion — to support the measure. The bill would remove the Lee, Davis and Confederate days from a list of 21 legal holidays on the books in Florida.
However, the bill must still get through two additional committees to reach the Senate floor, while an identical House proposal (HB 227) has not appeared in committees.
Bill sponsor Lauren Book, D-Plantation, said her goal isn’t to erase history, but to undercut tributes to the Confederacy, “which upheld the institution of slavery and perpetuated inequality and division within our country.”
Florida has honored Lee’s birthday, Jan. 19, since 1895, the same year April 26 became Confederate Memorial Day on the state calendar. Davis’ June 3 birthday went on the books in 1905.
Lee is from Virginia. Davis is most associated with Mississippi.
Barbara Hemingway, of American First Team Manatee, saying President Donald Trump has “stood up for our national anthem and our beautiful statues,” asked lawmakers to stand up for “Florida’s history.”
“The people that want Robert E. Lee’s name obliterated from the civic landscape don’t even like people with the last name Lee,” Hemingway said.
Other speakers, distancing themselves from neo-Nazis and the KKK, said they were offended by efforts of outsiders without an understanding of the “legacy of the region” and with a desire to “make all things Southern invisible.”
“These men, these holidays are celebrations that I was raised upon,” said Mary Barlow of Lake City.
After another speaker compared Lee’s moral character to that of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., committee Chairman Tom Lee, R-Thonotosassa, cautioned speakers to keep close to the bill’s subject matter.
State legal holidays are not necessarily paid holidays for public employees.
Sunday is considered a legal holiday. Other legal holidays that are not paid holidays include Susan B. Anthony’s birthday, Good Friday, Pascua Florida Day to mark the discovery of Florida in 1513 by Juan Ponce de Leon and Flag Day.
Scott McCoy, senior policy counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said it is important to remember the history of the Confederacy and slavery, but “anything celebrating our shameful past has no place in our government.”
“It is past time for Florida to end its celebration of a treasonous government and two of its leaders who fought to enslave and oppress an entire group of people based on the color of their skin,” McCoy said.
The hearing on the removal of the holidays came less than a week after the Senate agreed to replace a likeness of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith in the National Statuary Hall in Washington with a statue of civil-rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune (SB 472).
The statue exchange awaits action by the House (HB 139) which would make Bethune the first African-American woman to be honored in the national hall.
The Legislature voted in 2016 to replace the Smith statue during a nationwide backlash against Confederate symbols in the wake of the 2015 shooting deaths of nine African-American worshippers at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C.
by The News Service of Florida
Pictured: Robert E. Lee.
FWC Hunter Safety Courses Offered In Molino, Jay, Milton
February 7, 2018
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is offering free hunter safety courses in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in February. The courses will be held in Molino, Jay and Milton.
Students who have taken the online course and wish to complete the classroom portion must bring the online-completion report with them.
All firearms, ammunition and materials are provided free of charge. Students should bring a pen or pencil and paper. An adult must accompany children younger than 16 at all times.
Anyone born on or after June 1, 1975, must pass an approved hunter safety course and have a hunting license to hunt alone (unsupervised). The FWC course satisfies hunter-safety training requirements for all other states and Canadian provinces.
The locations and times are:
Escambia County
Online-completion Course
Feb. 28 (6 to 10 p.m. CST) & March 17 (7 to 10 a.m. CST)
Molino Community Center
6450 Highway 95A in Molino
Santa Rosa County
Traditional Course (must complete all days)
Feb. 8, 13, 15 (6 to 10 p.m. CST) & Feb. 17 (7 to 10 a.m. CST)
Avalon Middle School
5445 King Arthurs Way in Milton
Online-completion Course
Feb. 17 (7 to 10 a.m. CST)
Avalon Middle School
5445 King Arthurs Way in Milton
Online-completion Course
Feb. 7 (6 to 10 p.m. CST) & Feb. 17 (7 to 10 a.m. CST)
Jay Community Center
5259 Booker Lane in Jay
Those interested in attending a course can register online and obtain information about future hunter safety classes at MyFWC.com/HunterSafety or by calling the FWC’s regional office in Panama City at 850-265-3676.
ECSO Searching For Missing Middle School Teens
February 6, 2018
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is looking for two teens last seen leaving Woodham Middle School Monday..
Deputies said 13-year-old Kalynn D’Anne Meshell and 14-year-old Zoe Nicole Mckinzie were last seen on Monday walking out of Woodham Middle School at 9:15 a.m.
Kaylnn is described as being 5 feet 4 inches tall and 125 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. She was seen wearing a black jacket, dark t-shirt, and jeans. earing a black jacket, dark t-shirt, and jeans. Zoe is described as being is 5 foot 6 inches tall and 110 pounds, and has brown eyes and brown hiar. She was late seen wearing a brown hoodie with a white undershirt and jeans.
Information has been received that the one or both of the girls may be traveling to South Florida.
If you know the whereabouts of Kalynn or Zoe, call the ECSO at (850) 436-9620 or to remain anonymous call CrimeStoppers at (850) 433-STOP.
Funeral Procession Leads To Highway 29 Rollover Crash
February 6, 2018
Click for a follow-up to this story: Stopping For Funerals Is Southern Tradition, But What Does The Law Say?
Two people were injured in a traffic crash on Highway 29 near Success Road early Tuesday afternoon caused by a driver stopped for a funeral procession.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, 27-year old Breanna Williams of Frisco City, AL, stopped her 2005 Chevrolet Impala in a southbound lane of Highway 29 for northbound funeral procession. The driver of a 2008 GMC Envoy, 66-year old June Cox Richards of Molino, topped a hill and did not see the stopped Impala. Richards rear-ended the Impala before her SUV overturned in the southbound lanes of Highway 29. The Impala came to rest in the median.
Richards was transported to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola in serious condition, and Williams was transported to Sacred Heart with minor injuries.
Richards was cited by the FHP for careless driving, and Williams was cited for impeding traffic.
Southbound Highway 29 was closed over an hour due to the wreck.
The Cantonment and Molino Stations of Escambia Fire Rescue responded to the crash, which remains under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol. Further details have not been released.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.
That Tsunami Warning On Your Phone – It Was Just A Mistake
February 6, 2018
Many local residents received a message on their phones this morning warning them of a tsunami warning, but it was just a mistake, according to the weather service.
The National Tsunami Warning Center, part of the National Weather Service, tells NorthEscambia.com that they issued a routine tsunami test message at approximately this morning.
“The test message was released by at least one private sector company as an official Tsunami Warning, resulting in reports of tsunami warnings received via phones and other media across the East Coast, Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean. The test message was not disseminated to the public via any communication channels operated by the National Weather Service. We are currently looking into why the test message was distributed by at least one private sector company, and will provide more information as soon as we have it,” the agency said.
Century Could Add 10% Tax To Gas, Water, Electric Bills; Charge Others 25% More
February 6, 2018
The Century Town Council held discussion Monday night about a new tax up to 10 percent that could be levied on electricity, municipal water, propane and natural gas within the town limits.
Consultant Buz Eddy, former Gulf Breeze city manager, explained the revenue opportunities available to the town under the Municipal Public Service Tax (MPST) The tax can be implemented in any amount up to 10 percent, Eddy said.
“It’s always good to stabilize and diversify your tax base,” Eddy told the council. He said Gulf Breeze once collected a 4.5 percent but now collects 7 percent. That he said amounts to about $20 per month on his personal water, natural gas and electric bills.
In addition, the town council learned they could an additional 25 percent premium to the bills of those outside the town limits that use town water or natural gas services, and the ability to add up to a 5 percent communications tax to phone and internet bills.
Implementation of a MPST would require and ordinance and 120 days notice to the Florida Department of Revenue, with a possible implementation date by July.
Eddy said the tax revenue would be available to the town in their general fund.
The town council took no action on Eddy’s recommendations.
Pictured above and below: Consultant Buz Eddy explains possible new tax revenue to the Century Town Council Monday night. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
