Wind bill gives localities taxing options By Anne Adams • Staff Writer
RICHMOND - A bill to give localities the option of how to tax wind utility equipment passed the House of Delegates Monday by a margin of 10 votes.
The proposal was first introduced on behalf of Highland County supervisors by Sen. Emmett Hanger, but was amended at the request of Highland's Del. Chris Saxman last week.
The original bill would have allowed localities to tax wind facility equipment at $5,000 per megawatt of nameplate capacity. That was estimated to put Highland's tax revenue stream at about $200,000 annually if Highland New Wind Development's project were built.
Saxman, however, felt that proposal too open-ended, and called it poor policy for the state to set. The bill in its amended version now allows localities to tax the equipment at any rate, as long as it's not above the local personal property tax rate. In Highland's case, that rate is currently $1.50 per $100 of value.
It's unclear at this point what Highland could see in revenue from HNWD's project because the State Corporation Commission would need to place a value on the equipment first. In some states, like West Virginia, that value has been at salvage-value levels, thereby greatly lowering the amount of tax a county could collect.
Hanger did not return calls from The Recorder by deadline this week.
A second legislative proposal affecting wind energy utilities was voted out of the House Commerce & Labor committee with an amendment that keeps local authority and land use plans relevant in siting projects.
Sen. Frank Wagner had introduced the "Virginia Energy Plan" in this General Assembly session, and it has undergone several changes. The original draft contained language that effectively kept local government planning and zoning authority from standing in the way of new power plant projects in Virginia, including wind energy facilities like the one proposed for Highland County. That version had passed the Senate, but House members successfully negotiated changes to the bill that keep local land use plans relevant in siting such plants.
By Tuesday this week, the amended bill was approved by the House commerce and labor committee on a 14-7 vote.
The measure is due to come to a vote before the full House this week, and Wagner has said he will ask the Senate to pass the bill as amended.
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