Jefferson County development officials continue to wrestle with the terms of a tax-exempt policy for several wind power projects planned for the county.
The Jefferson County Industrial Development Agency is struggling to draft a uniform policy for payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements. The PILOTS would allow the developers of the Galloo Island Wind Farm and three other proposed projects around the county to make annual payments to the county, towns and school districts in place of taxes.
The IDA has to come up with a framework guiding taxing jurisdictions. It has to decide a method for determining how much revenue will be divided up by the taxing jurisdictions, while leaving specifics of the split to them.
Complicating the discussions is the matter of transmission lines proposed by three of the developers. The lines may be taxable property since they are not state-recognized utilities.
The issue could be resolved by rejecting a PILOT for any project as suggested by JCIDA board member James W. Wright, chief executive officer of the Development Authority of the North Country. Without a PILOT, developers would pay full taxes on their projects.
The projects will have far-reaching impacts throughout the county and not just on the host communities, while they do not provide long-term jobs. Project developers should pay taxes like other businesses and industries.
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