A disagreement over the terms of a tax deal for a windfarm development in Prattsburgh will apparently have to be settled in court. The Steuben County Industrial Development Agency refused to change the terms of a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement Thursday for a 36-turbine project by First Wind, formerly known as UPC. Attorneys for the Prattsburgh and Naples school districts requested a renegotiation, claiming the company should be paying hundreds of thousands of dollars more in taxes. The tax agreement involves First Wind paying a fixed amount to the school districts, the town of Prattsburgh and the county over a 20-year period.

A disagreement over the terms of a tax deal for a windfarm development in Prattsburgh will apparently have to be settled in court. The Steuben County Industrial Development Agency refused to change the terms of a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement Thursday for a 36-turbine project by First Wind, formerly known as UPC. Attorneys for the Prattsburgh and Naples school districts requested a renegotiation claiming the company should be paying hundreds of thousands of dollars more in taxes. ...The Prattsburgh school district is being shorted about $1 million, school attorneys claim.

As Jefferson County, towns and school districts continue negotiations on splitting wind power development payments in lieu of taxes, towns have asked for an even larger piece of the pie than an earlier suggestion that included a host community agreement. ...According to a spreadsheet obtained by a Freedom of Information request from the Jefferson County administrator's office, the town of Clayton offered numbers in which towns would receive 47.5 percent, schools would receive 37.5 percent and the county would receive 15 percent of any tax break money.

[T]he City Council approved a payment-in-lieu-of- taxes agreement for Steel Winds II, the second phase of the wind energy development on the former Bethlehem site. The agreement covers each of the proposed 13 turbines for 15 years, beginning when each is put into place. The payment will be based on $10,000 per megawatt for the 32.5 megawatts expected to be produced. ...A significant change in the new agreement is the inclusion of the school district and Erie County in the disbursement of PILOT monies. Neither was included in the original agreement...

Aside from Wyoming County, there are 62 other wind energy projects proposed across the state, according to the New York Independent System Operator. They include plans by Massachusetts-based First Wind (UPC Wind) for two projects in Ontario County and one in Genesee County; a 120-megawatt wind farm in Orleans County by Airtricity Inc. of Ireland; and a 75-megawatt wind farm in Genesee County by Tonawanda Creek Wind LLC. ...Fanning all this wind farm activity is the federal government's renewable energy production tax credit of about 2 cents per kilowatt-hour, said Thomas Drennen, a professor of economics and environmental studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva.

Just how tax payments from a windfarm development in Prattsburgh should be divided was argued this week before Supreme Court Judge Peter Bradstreet. No decision was made in a lawsuit filed by the Prattsburgh and Naples school districts against a payment-in-lieu of taxes agreement approved by the Steuben County Industrial Development Agency in January. No decision on the claim was made and Bradstreet's office said there is no timetable when a ruling will be made. ...But Premo said the town agreement was frequently referred to in discussions and documents setting up the PILOT. "This was structured in a way to divert money away from the districts," Premo said. "There is no indication they will do anything differently (in May)."

Has the controversy over wind power blown away in Howard? Fewer than 20 residents came out to a Steuben County Industrial Development Agency hearing Thursday evening on a proposed Payment In Lieu of Taxes Agreement with EverPower Renewables, a New York-based company planning to build 25 wind turbines south of Howard. Two people made comments to SCIDA Executive Director James Sherron. ...In exchange for the tax breaks, EverPower will sign on for a 20-year payment plan to give funds to the Town of Howard - which will receive 24 percent - the Canisteo-Greenwood Central School District will get nearly 60 percent and Steuben County the rest.

Two school districts claim they won't get their fair share of tax payments from a wind farm development planned for the Prattsburgh area. Charging deliberate attempts to prevent them from receiving proper payments, two local school districts filed lawsuits recently against the town of Prattsburgh and Steuben County Industrial Development Agency, and other agencies. The lawsuits filed by both the Prattsburgh and Naples school districts allege the payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement for the yet-to-be-built 36-turbine wind farm project creates a significant loss in anticipated revenues for the schools. Both districts want the tax agreement thrown out.

For counties with wind farm development, there's no one way to slice the pie of tax-break agreements. As town, school district and county officials in Jefferson County look around the state for guidance in dividing money for tax-break agreements with local wind farms, they won't get much help. Across New York, there are at least four wind farms with some sort of tax-break agreement. Some relied on tax distribution to indicate how to divide the money, while others weighted towns heavily.

Two local school district claim they aren't getting their fair share of tax payments from a wind farm development in the Prattsburgh area. Charging deliberate attempts to prevent them from receiving proper payments, two local school districts filed lawsuits recently against the Town of Prattsburgh and Steuben County Industrial Development Agency, and other agencies. The lawsuits filed by both the Prattsburgh and Naples school districts allege the payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement for the 36-turbine wind farm project creates a significant loss in anticipated revenues for the schools.

Town officials convinced that wind farms are coming to Jefferson County are jockeying to see if they can divert millions of dollars in potential tax revenue to their governments and away from school districts, which generally would receive the majority of taxes raised from the creation of each turbine. In an average payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreement, school districts can expect to receive from 50 percent to 60 percent of property taxes from any given property owner. Jefferson County would receive the next-highest amount and towns would get the least. ...Using the Thousand Islands district numbers, if a deal followed a normal PILOT agreement, the school districts could expect about $570,000, the county $370,000 and the towns $60,000.

The pros and cons of wind power will be on the minds of many Herkimer County residents as officials move forward with tax negotiations for two projects proposed in the county. County officials have been in talks for a payment in lieu of taxes agreement for the Hard Scrabble Wind Farm planned for the towns of Fairfield and Norway. The Jordanville Wind project designed for the towns of Warren and Stark also has been brought into the discussions in recent weeks, county Administrator James Wallace said.

Supervisors from towns with wind projects want to see host community agreements in their towns as a part of any tax breaks for wind power developers. The Jefferson County Board of Legislators heard from the county's counsel on negotiations, Kevin R. McAuliffe, Tuesday night. He advocated negotiating only payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements. But the supervisors want to see PILOT and host community agreements. "We think it's only fair," Hounsfield Supervisor Jean H. Derouin said. "We have the legal expertise to make it a binding contract.

Jefferson County's counsel on negotiations with wind farm developers told the Board of Legislators that a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement through the Industrial Development Agency would be preferable to a host-community agreement for the disbursement of any funds from the developers. "Host-community payments don't have any statutory basis," attorney Kevin R. McAuliffe said during a presentation to legislators Tuesday. "Aren't we better off going with an agreement that is enforceable and has meaningful economic expectations?" Mr. McAuliffe, Syracuse, was retained in November after helping Lewis County with its PILOT negotiations with wind power developers. First, he reminded legislators that no wind farms would develop without granting tax breaks to the developers.

Lawmakers in Jefferson County are about to get a crash course in wind farms and the revenue they generate. Tomorrow, the Board of Legislators will meet with Syracuse attorney Kevin McAuliffe, who specializes in payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreements relating to wind projects. Because there are a number of wind farm proposals in the county, lawmakers are looking into ways PILOT programs can be structured. In any PILOT deal with a wind farm developer, money is paid to the county, school districts and municipalities where the turbines are located. Legislature Chairman Ken Blankenbush said he'd like to see a uniform PILOT deal - a one-size-fits-all package for every wind company.

Many area residents voiced their concerns - some by talking softly, some by yelling - over a proposed tax reduction for the Cohocton wind power projects Friday morning. The hearing, hosted by the Steuben County Industrial Development Agency, was a way for SCIDA board members to receive some specific community input on a Payment in Lieu of Taxes agreement the board is negotiating with Canandaigua Power Partners and Canandaigua Power Partners II, according to SCIDA Executive Director James Sherron. "This meeting is for you, the public to be allowed the opportunity to give comment relative to what the IDA has been asked to do," Sherron said, adding SCIDA's jurisdiction extended only to financial assistance. ...Cohocton Wind Watch ringleader James Hall, in his 11-minute speach, told Sherron he did not approve of giving a PILOT with lower payment rates than what UPC had previously said was budgeted for the project. "In writing, in the formal application, (UPC) admitted, and said publicly, they're willing to pay $4.5 million in taxes," Hall said. "Not bad. Sounds like we might even drop a lot of our opposition. I'd like my taxes to go down."

“I’m not sure everyone knows what they are voting on,” Bono, District 11, said prior to the vote. ...information included guidelines for the contract negotiation, which include a proposal for a payment in lieu of taxes of $8,000 per megawatt, for a total of $640,000 on an 80 megawatt project. The information also said that the county would receive a one-time payment of $360,000 to $400,000 in its general fund for use on other projects such as the construction of a new county correctional facility. “One of my main concerns is how can I justify an 85 percent tax break for this company and not for anyone else,” Bono said. “We want to attract businesses to Herkimer County, but we cannot give 85 percent tax breaks to everyone. We need to continue to work with the numbers.”

When LIPA ...first proposed the offshore wind project in 2003, costs were estimated at $200 million. The company said it would have little to no impact on electricity rates. That was the last published cost estimate until fall 2006, when under a Freedom of Information Law request from Newsday, the power authority released the original, winning bid from FPL Energy of Florida: $356 million. The price increases didn't stop there. ..."Long Islanders shouldn't believe for one minute that any major form of renewable energy is going to be cheaper than traditional resources produced by oil or natural gas," Kessel wrote.

Lingering hard feelings over negotiations for wind-farm-tax agreements last month may lead Franklin County to create a planning department. ... Thursday, when IDA Executive Director Brad Jackson came before the County Legislature's Economic Planning and Development Committee, he was criticized for not doing enough to look out for the county's interest at the negotiating table. Saranac Lake Democrat Timothy Burpoe said legislators thought Jackson was supposed to be the county's representative in the room. Burpoe said higher megawatt figures could have been obtained with a tougher stance against Noble and the towns. But because a deadline was imposed to reach the deal quickly, Burpoe said, he and some other legislators felt pressure to settle for a deal even though the county ended up with the smallest share.