Galloo Island ~ Wind Farm Deal Pares Tax Income

GALLOO PLAN: Special 20-year PILOT would mean $5.3m less for Hounsfield, Sackets schools and county

By NANCY MADSEN, TIMES STAFF WRITER
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2009

The fine print of the novel payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement proposed for Galloo Island Wind Farm gives the developer stability in tax payments over 20 years, making it easier to attract investors. But the bottom line means about $5.3 million less in taxes for the coffers of the town of Hounsfield, Sackets Harbor Central School District and Jefferson County. The three taxing jurisdictions will receive base payments totaling about $54.7 million over the term of the proposed PILOT. If a normal 15-year PILOT were applied with five years of full taxation afterward, the jurisdictions would net about $60 million.

To ensure development, having a set amount in tax payments for the entire investment period "would be a big key" to attracting investors, William J. Walsh, director of the Joseph I. Lubin School of Accounting at the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University.
"In New York, we have very, very high property taxes to begin with," he said. "If you combine that incentive — the ideal location for wind turbines — with the reduced taxes, and say, 'We'll match the low property taxes in other places,' that's an incentive that has worked in the past."

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