South Dakota’s PUC lowered the tax rate on...

South Dakota’s PUC lowered the tax rate on in-state gross receipts of utilities and telecommunications companies (http://1.usa.gov/1md1p0L) Tuesday. The levy for fiscal year 2015, beginning July 1, will be 0.14 percent, down from the 0.15 percent maximum allowed by state law. “I'm pretty excited we can decrease a tax rate,” said Commissioner Chris Nelson, at the PUC meeting. Nelson noted the rate had been at 0.15 for a number of years. The rate is capped at what’s needed to fund PUC operations for two years. The rates were able to be lowered because the PUC has managed costs, and there have been an increase in requests to raise electric rates, Nelson said in an interview, noting that the cost of considering the rate cases are charged to the requesting utilities.