Sec 42-6012. Municipal transaction privilege tax; sales of electricity or natural gas

A city or town that levies a transaction privilege, sales, gross receipts, use, franchise or other similar fee or tax, however denominated, on the business of producing, providing or furnishing electricity, electric lights, current, power or natural gas shall either tax or exempt in whole the gross proceeds of sales or gross income from sales by those businesses to either of the following businesses:

1. Businesses that use at least fifty-one percent of the electricity, electric lights, current, power or natural gas in a manufacturing or smelting operation located in that city or town. This paragraph does not apply to gas transportation services. For the purposes of this paragraph:

(a) "Gas transportation services" means the services of transporting natural gas to a natural gas customer or to a natural gas distribution facility if the natural gas was purchased from a supplier other than the utility.

(b) "Manufacturing" means the performance as a business of an integrated series of operations that places tangible personal property in a form, composition or character different from that in which it was acquired and transforms it into a different product with a distinctive name, character or use. Manufacturing does not include processing, fabricating, job printing, mining, generating electricity or operating a restaurant.

(c) "Smelting" means to melt or fuse a metalliferous mineral, often with an accompanying chemical change, usually to separate the metal.

2. Businesses that operate an international operations center in this state and that are certified by the Arizona commerce authority pursuant to section 41-1520.