Biggest taxpayers to Hamilton County
1. EPB, $11.7 million2. Volkswagen of America, $4.5 million3. CBL Properties, $3.1 million4. Tennessee Valley Authority, $2.4 million5. McKee Foods, $2 millionSource: Hamilton County Trustee’s Office, payments to the county for 2017 taxes. This does not include taxes paid to municipalities and other local governments.
Where TVA pays in-lieu-of-tax payments
* Tennessee, $347.4 million* Alabama, $87.5 million* Mississippi, $39.7 million* Kentucky, $36.2 million* Georgia, $8.5 million* North Carolina, $2.8 million* Virginia, $1.2 million* Illinois, $366,581Source: Tennessee Valley Authority
America’s biggest government utility and its distributors may be exempt from paying property taxes by their government and nonprofit status, but they are still the biggest taxpayers in Chattanooga and most of the Tennessee Valley.
But as homeowners and businesses use more energy efficient appliances and machines and power sales stagnate or decline, the amount of taxes collected from power utilities is no longer increasing and could drop slightly over time.
TVA directors this week approved the final in-lieu-of-tax payments to states and localities totaling nearly $523.7 million for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. Such payments were up $6.5 million from the previous year but are still down more than $11 million from 2016 and nearly $18 million below what TVA paid in 2015.