New to auditing in Vermont and trying to understand how franchise fees work here. Green Mountain Power is showing various municipal charges on commercial bills but I can't find clear documentation on what's authorized. Does Vermont have statewide franchise fee regulations or is it all local municipal ordinances? Any Vermont auditors who can point me in the right direction?
Vermont franchise fees - anyone know the rules?
Chester, Vermont is tricky because it's mostly local ordinances. Each town sets their own franchise agreement with GMP. I'd suggest starting with the Vermont Public Utility Commission website - they have a database of municipal agreements. Also check with individual town clerks for the actual ordinance language. It's more work than states with standardized franchise fee structures, but that also means more opportunity to find billing errors.
Warren's right about the local ordinances. Here in Pennsylvania we have similar issues with PPL and some of the smaller municipal utilities. The key is getting copies of the actual franchise agreements, not just relying on what shows up on the utility bills. I found one case where the utility was using an expired franchise rate that was 1.5% higher than the current agreement. Town had renewed at a lower rate but utility never updated their billing system.