Herkimer County legislators unrealisticThe Jordanville wind project has offered a written agreement to pay $6,000 per megawatt or $12,000 per turbine in taxes on a PILOT agreement. Herkimer County legislators have rejected this. They want $20,000 per megawatt or $40,000 per turbine. To put a perspective on this, our farm has been offered six turbines. The energy company offers to pay $72,000 in PILOT taxes, and we still pay our usual $10,000. That’s a total of $82,000 taxes per year. The finance committee says, “no thank you,” we want $240,000 plus our $10,000. They want a cool quarter of a million tax dollars per year, all from property that doesn’t milk a cow anymore. County legislators used taxpayers’ money to do a study of possible windfarm income. They will not share this information with landowners, town boards and energy companies. Why the secret? The energy companies shared information with them. Perhaps this money was foolishly spent on someone who doesn’t know what they are talking about. Clinton County has recently settled an agreement to accept $6,000 per megawatt PILOT program for a new windfarm project. This is the norm for this and existing projects. Why is Herkimer County asking so much? We may not even have as much wind as the north country. Some legislators are saying, “if this is not acceptable, let them walk.” How do you rationalize that? If an agreement fails to materialize, Herkimer County will never see a windfarm project. Think of the lost revenue plus Herkimer County’s chance to contribute to renewable energy. It will be a sad state of affairs the county legislators decided for Herkimer County, but that too seems to be the norm. Edward and Shirley Mower Jordanville
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