Public utilities are funny things. The industry is highly capital intensive and many argue that it makes for natural monopolies. At the same time, access to electricity and water (and internet) are assumed as given in any modern building. Further, utility providers are highly, highly regulated at both the state and federal levels of government. Many utilities must ask permission prior to changing anything about their prices, capital, or even which services they offer.

Don’t get me wrong. Utility companies have a sweet deal. They are protected from competition, face relatively inelastic demand for their goods, and they have a very dependable rate of return. I just can’t help feeling like state governments are keeping hostage a large firm with immobile fixed business capital. For that matter, given what we know about the political desire for opaque taxation, I also have a suspicion that many states might tax their populations by using the utility companies as an ingenious foil. “Those utility companies are greedy, don’t you know. It’s a good thing that they are so highly regulated by the state.”  

There are two types of utility taxation. 1) Gross receipts taxes are like an income tax. From the end-user’s perspective, the tax increases with each unit consumed. 2) A utility license tax is like a fee that the utility must pay in order to operate in the state. From the user’s perspective, well… This tax may not even appear on the monthly bill. But if it does, then the tax per household falls with each additional household that the utility serves. Either way, state governments can get their share of the economic profits that protection affords. Below is map which shows the 2021 cumulative utility tax per resident in each state.

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