A longstanding pall of financial uncertainty lifted for Helena, Lewis and Clark County, and public schools in the county Tuesday with the Montana Supreme Court's rejection of PPL Montana's multimillion dollar property-tax claims.

PPL contended the state Department of Revenue had overvalued the company's nearby Hauser and Holter dams, as well as the rest of its electricity generating facilities in Montana. The company said the state's appraisal was unfairly increased after PPL bought the facilities from the former Montana Power Company, resulting in tax bills substantially higher than those of other electricity generating dams in the state.

But the justices unanimously found that the department's method of evaluating all of PPL Montana's property as a single unit was legally sound. In part, the state determined that PPL's property is more valuable than that of other utilities in Montana because unlike them, PPL has been federally designated as an unregulated utility that can sell its electricity at whatever price the wholesale market will bear, and its profits are unrestricted by state regulation. Because its electrical generation can reap higher profits, its property taxes reflect that.

The opinion, written by Justice Brian Morris, was based on a 1932 precedent set in a case involving Western Union transmission lines back when telegrams were big business. The state high court at the time ruled that Montana properly appraised the value of the lines in Montana based on the total value of Western Union's worldwide telegraph system.

The PPL lawsuit involved nearly $10 million in the tax years 2000-2002, but the ruling could affect another $28 million in taxes PPL has protested since 2003. PPL spokesman David Hoffman said the company has yet to analyze Tuesday's ruling regarding those later protests.

If PPL decides to go back to court, Justice Jim Rice, in a concurring opinion Tuesday, has an idea for them. Rice, a former legislator, noted that in using the "unit method of valuation," the Department of Revenue has a huge amount of discretion to raise a company's taxes without any direction by the Legislature. This is an example of why "the bureaucracy has been referred to as 'the fourth branch of government,' " he said. "As with any broad delegation of authority, there is a potential for abuse."

Rice said that whether a legal challenge on that basis would establish a constitutional violation "is a question which may be raised another day."