Jefferson County taxpayers could be left paying town and school district taxes for a wind farm if the developer fails to pay the project taxes, warns Paul J. Warneck, Jefferson County director of real property services.

County officials are worried that taxpayers will have limited recourse if a wind farm leasing land for its turbines does not make its tax or payment-in-lieu-of-taxes payments. Only projects where the turbines would be on land owned by the developer, such as Galloo Island Wind Farm, would provide some security to the county.

"If we needed to sell the project, we could sell it with the... [continue via Web link]