Agenda Notes:
Agenda #23: Refund of Property & Business Privilege License Taxes
Resource:
Scott Greer, 704-336-5883, sgreer@ci.charlotte.nc.us
Council will be asked to approve a tax refund to Duke Energy for $4.5 million on May 12, 2008. This refund is due to an overpayment of property taxes which was not included in either the revised FY08 or the FY09 budgets and has no budgetary impact.
In the process of estimating Property Tax revenues for the FY09 Budget, Finance Department staff discovered unusual changes in the reported values of State Certified Property within the City of Charlotte. The reported value had erroneously increased for the FY08 tax year by $1.1 billion.
State Certified property includes property owned by utility and transportation companies. The value of this property is set by the North Carolina Department of Revenue instead of the County Tax Assessor in order to create consistency across the State.
Finance Department staff notified the County of the variance who then reported it to the Department of Revenue. This action led to a discovery of an error in reporting by Duke Energy in their FY08 property listing. Duke erroneously listed property as located in the City limits when in fact it was in the unincorporated area of Mecklenburg County.
Due to the error, Mecklenburg County billed and Duke Energy had paid taxes to the City of Charlotte for $4.5 million over what was owed. Mecklenburg County was underpaid by approximately $1.5 million.
Duke Energy corrected the error with the Department of Revenue who then re-issued the State Certified values for Mecklenburg County with the corrections. All the municipalities in the County were impacted.
The action on the May 12th agenda for a refund is the same as our normal refund process where clerical errors are corrected.
Duke is not entitled to interest on the overpayment.61
Information Items:
Annual Tap Water Guide Shows Excellent Quality
Resource:
Doug Bean, 704-391-5070, dbean@ci.charlotte.nc.us
Charlotte-Mecklenburg residents will receive the Water Quality Report this week. This report summarizes the quality of our community's tap water in calendar year 2007. Our drinking water once again meets and exceeds all drinking water standards and had no water quality violations in 2007.
Highlights of this year's Water Quality Report
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Charlotte-Mecklenburg drinking water had no water quality violations in 2007.
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The impurities detected were all either naturally occurring or an expected result of the water treatment process.
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The levels of impurities found in the water were much lower than Environmental Protection Agency limits and posed no health threat.
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Utilities tests for more than 150 different substances and conducted more than 150,000 tests on drinking water in 2007.
The EPA requires large water systems to produce and mail this report directly to customers. In addition to the results of water quality tests, readers also will find details about our water sources, the treatment process and some commonly asked questions.
The report coincides with Drinking Water Week, a national celebration and education campaign about the value of clean drinking water.
Utilities Celebrates Water Week with Reid Park Elementary Friday
Resource:
Doug Bean, 704-391-5070, dbean@ci.charlotte.nc.us
Council members are invited to attend a Drinking Water Week celebration ceremony Friday, May 9, at 11:30 a.m. at Reid Park Elementary (4108 W. Tyvola Road.) We will read a Water Week proclamation and recognize winners of our poster contest, as well as the winners of our Water Star water conservation awards. That morning Utilities and Storm Water Services will provide a variety of water education stations for students, teaching them about drinking water, wastewater, grease disposal and pollution prevention.
Utilities also is sending conservation tips and other features to media outlets and city employees throughout the week. We hope you can join us Friday at Reid Park.
