§ 16.38.140. Payments to county—Amount—Exceptions.

A.

The grantee of any franchise awarded to a public utility or mutual water company, except a franchise for a railroad track, shall, during the life of the franchise, pay to the county, in lawful money of the United States, two percent of the gross annual receipts of the grantee arising from the use, operation or possession of the franchise.

1.

No percentage shall be paid for the first five years succeeding the effective date of the franchise, but thereafter such percentage shall be payable annually.

2.

Provided further, that if the franchise be a renewal of a right already in existence, the payment of said percentage of gross receipts shall accrue from the effective date of the ordinance granting the franchise.

3.

In case the franchise is granted to a street railway company or trackless trolley, and provides for an extension of an existing system, then the gross receipts shall be estimated to be one-half of the proportion of the total gross receipts of said system which the mileage of such extension bears to the total mileage of the whole system, and said estimate shall be conclusive as to the amount of the gross receipts of said extension.

B.

As used above, the phrase "two percent of the gross annual receipts of the grantee arising from the use, operation or possession of the franchise" shall be construed as that similar phrase found in Section 6006 of the Public Utilities Code and in former Section 3 of Chapter 578, Page 777, Statutes of 1905, popularly known as the Broughton Act.

(Ord. 12420 § 5, 1981: Ord. 7468 Art. 1 § 123, 1959.)