Governor Sununu is urging the U.S. Senate to reverse what he says are unintended consequences of the Republican-backed tax bill that went into effect last year.
Under the old tax code, when private water utility companies got grants from the government or help from developers to upgrade their systems, they didn’t have to pay tax on this.
Erin Holmes, of the Department of Environmental Services, says now all those upgrades have a new federal tax of 30 %.
That includes on grants DES is giving to companies in southern New Hampshire for a project to deal with groundwater contamination.
"The grant that we give them is, let’s say, a million dollars," Holmes says. "Now there needs to be another 300 thousand dollars that doesn’t even go to infrastructure - it doesn’t benefit any users of the water, it goes straight to the federal government."
In his letter, Sununu recommends restoring the tax exemption for water utilities in an upcoming infrastructure bill.
