BANGOR, Maine — The Penobscot County Board of Commissioners is scheduled to decide on Tuesday whether to give significant tax breaks to a 14-turbine industrial wind site proposed for Passadumkeag Mountain.
The meeting will start at 9 a.m. with an executive session involving Penobscot County Sheriff Glenn Ross. The wind site deliberations are due to begin at 10 a.m., according to the meeting’s agenda.
Called Passadumkeag Wind Park and proposed by Quantum Utility Generation, an alternative energy company based in Houston, Texas, the site’s turbines would be 459 feet from base to extended blade tip. Each turbine would generate 3 megawatts of electricity, according to the company’s proposal.
Electricity would be collected in a 34.5-kilovolt line to run about 17 miles from Passadumkeag Ridge along Greenfield Road through Summit Township, Greenfield Township and Greenbush. The project would include a substation in Greenbush and a connection to an existing 115-kilovolt transmission line on Greenbush Road.
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection review of the project is ongoing. The commissioners’ vote on whether to set a tax increment financing agreement with Quantum is not, commissioners have said, an endorsement of the project, merely an arrangement to capture the most economic value from the project for the residents they represent if DEP should approve the project.
A tax incentive program for economic development available to all Maine local governments, a TIF permits a municipality or county government to use some or all of the new property taxes that result from an investment project within a designated district to assist in that project’s expenses and also generate economic development funds for the municipality.
A TIF with the county would provide Quantum with tax breaks toward the project in exchange for a portion of tax revenues, which may be used for county initiatives totaling $7.8 million over 30 years. The money would be used for economic development projects.
To encourage further project development within the unorganized territory the commission represents, the developer would receive about $5 million over 30 years for potential reinvestment as part of the TIF, said Erik Stumpfel, the attorney who helped the commission negotiate the tentative deal.
And as part of the deal, the commission retains all of the tax dollars the project would generate during the last eight years of the 30-year period, Stumpfel said.
If the commissioners didn’t opt for a TIF, Stumpfel explained recently, more than half of the approximately $13 million in taxes it is expected to generate would go to the state, presumably for distribution statewide, instead of staying within the unorganized territories for reinvestment there by the commission or the developer.
The commissioners wanted to ensure that the millions in economic development aid would go into their territory “and would not all go to Augusta and be spread on a statewide basis,” Stumpfel said.
Residents opposing the project and anti-wind-power advocates have dominated the DEP and commission meetings devoted to the subject. They have said the project would blight the mountain landscape, reduce property values, severely damage the tourism-based businesses in the area, threaten wildlife and discomfit residents with the vibrations, noise and strobe lights the turbines would generate or use.
http://goo.gl/MEQvi
Just vote no to sending more of this “windy” generated energy out of state, which is where half the generated electricity is headed. Vote yes if they have installed one on both Beacon Hill and Munjoy Hill.
Both Beacon Hill and Munjoy Hill have height restrictions so nothing is built that would be “out of scale”. So these 459 ft tall machines are OK to ruin beautiful ridges & lakes in rural Maine, but not in these locations. Such hypocrisy!
The turbines slated for P’Keag Mt. are more than half the height of the John Hancock Tower in Boston, the tallest building in New England at 790 ft. They are more than twice as tall as the tallest building in Maine, 204 ft. Franklin Tower in Portland. Anyone who says it is OK to blast away our mountains to put up these behemoth machines does not deserve to live in Maine!
If “significant” tax breaks are granted to these carpet baggers, I expect there should be an equal or greater tax break granted to the residents of the UT.
How about if we kill all the tax breaks for gas, oil and coal while we are at it?
We as a country would be far ahead if we got rid of all subsidies, tax schemes, and mandates for all forms of energy. Get the government out of it and let market forces work. Would you agree to that, mAineAc?
I hope so, because if we did so, all the energy dense sources would do well and the market would likely lead to innovation. Also, all the scams that don’t work such as ethanol, wind, and large array solar would fall to the wayside. Ideology and politics drive these sources, not sound science and economics!
In an earlier meeting when Esu Anahata pointed out he was being stepped on by the unfair system, Chairman Tom Davis told him “That’s the American way”.
When are the people going to wake up and realize the government works for us?
He should be fired for treating a citizen that way.
What is being referred to as “tax increment financing” is nothing more than Down East corporate welfare. Tax exemptions are not lost dollars, the exemptions are shifted onto the backs of all of the other taxpayers in the jurisdiction. True tax increment financing does not refund property taxes to developers.
This is an absurd abuse of a TIF. TIF’s are intended to spur long-term economic activity to boost the local economy. Can anyone tell me how giving this group of former Enron people huge tax breaks in the form of a TIF is going to help the people of Grand Falls?
Also, how can Quantum, owner of the project, ask for a TIF with a straight face when they have already testified to DEP that they are flush with cash and will not require outside financing to build this project?
It’s time to WAKE UP, MAINE!
Leave it to a wind developer to take a legitimate economic development program and turn it into a sleazy financial scheme to bilk Maine’s property taxpayers.
It will create jobs and will benefit the local economy. This is exactly what tifs are for.
Unattended automatic machinery is going to create jobs? How’s that supposed to work? Sure, somebody’s got to put them up, but after that… they’re not 19th-century lighthouses, you know. They don’t require keepers.
Stumpfel, a wind attorney, masquerading as a representative of the Commissioners, is creative in the ways he describes the disposition of the wind developers’ property tax payments. Here’s the bottom line, Maine property taxpayers will be giving money to the wind developer. It’s that simple.
Stumpfel says the commissioners didn’t want all that economic development aid to “go to Augusta and be spread on a statewide basis.” Translation: The County Commissioners and the developer want to keep for themselves the property tax payments that would have been used to lower the taxes of other property taxpayers. It’s shameful. Talk of “reinvestment” in the UTs by Attorney Stumpfel is marketing language. The simple truth is, the developer has about half of its property tax payments returned to it to offset the cost of the project or whatever it wants to do with the free money – courtesy of Maine taxpayers. No reinvestment required.
“Here’s the bottom line, Maine property taxpayers will be giving money to the wind developer.”
More specifically Maine property taxpayers will either;
1. vote directly to allow wind developers to retain ALL wind project property tax monies that would otherwise go directly to town revenues
2. vote directly to allow a FRACTION of the wind project tax property tax monies to be used for town revenue and/or some directed economic development use, while the project retains the rest, or;
3. Empower commissioners or selectmen to make those decisions for them.
With very few exceptions, all actions taken on by selectmen, commissioners, and state agencies have been voted/approved by the voting public.
Remember, the marching orders that elected officials use come from those who showed up on voting day.
Maybe sometimes. The wind law was passed in “emergency session” and was never debated by the legislature. It was passed”under the hammer”with few interested enough to investigate. We elect them, but there are ways to avoid a democratic process which the wind industry has figured out.
I agree with you that it is ultimately the responsibility of the voters to make these decisions, directly or indirectly. However, the voters rely on their elected officials to be the “experts” in these decisions. If you listen to the comments of the Penobscot County elected officials and their attorney, you certainly will not get a fair representation of what is actually going on there. (By the way, this attorney, coincidentally, also does work for wind developers.) They avoid plain language and complete descriptions suitable for lay people. I’ve been to one of these TIF meetings for another wind project and the tap-dancing by the attorneys and “experts” was extraordinary. You could only get straight answers if you knew the right questions to ask and pressed them on it.
Tax increment financing was intended to make economic development projects possibly in those instances where the project might not be possible without the TIF arrangement. It was usually assumed that there would be direct positive economic impacts locally from the project itself, as well.
We know that in Maine, wind projects do not RELY on TIF deals to move forward. But if you’ve got County officials willing to give away someone else’s money, why not ask for the TIF? We also know that the direct local economic impacts from the project are mostly very brief, lasting only for the short construction phase. In the Penobscot County case, Maine law makes it pretty likely that little, if any, of the TIF money will make it to the affected Township since it is in the UTs.
In a democracy, I suppose everything rests on the shoulders of the citizens. It doesn’t mean they can’t still be misled by their elected officials and a slick attorney.
I wonder if the Commissioners are aware that due to wind projects’ dedicated transmission, CMP transmission rates went up by 19.6% on July 1. The only paper in the state that considered this newsworthy was the Portland Daily Sun.
Google:
“What every Maine ratepayer needs to know”.
So… technological dead end and pointless blight on the landscape aside, what’s the point in allowing these big industrial developments if we’re not going to tax them?
When a business closes in a UT, ALL tax-payers in UTs share the burden of making up the difference in the tax base. Why aren’t ALL Maine citizens in UTs allowed to benefit when a developer moves in?
When Joan Fortin, attorney for First Wind, was asked directly whether First Wind, by requesting a TIF, was asking the people of Maine to help finance their Binglam to Blanchard project, her one word answer was “Yes.”
This article stated: “To encourage further project development within the unorganized territory the commission represents, the developer would receive about $5 million over 30 years for potential reinvestment as part of the TIF, said Erik Stumpfel, the attorney who helped the commission negotiate the tentative deal.”
To “encourage” development–not mandate it. For “POTENTIAL reinvestment”–not planned. People of Maine must contact their county commissioners and urge them to deny these TIFs. We must not be blinded by vague statements and assumptions. We must not be so naive as to think these tax breaks are good for us.
If Penobscot County wants money for economic development, they could submit a bill to the Legislature which would require that a certain amount of the WHOLE tax payment paid by the wind developer be set aside for development. No giving of rebates, no throwing fellow Mainers under the bus. By setting aside part of the whole, Mainers in UTs outside the county aren’t being asked to bear such a big burden, and the county could still get a portion for their area. And remember, TIFs exist to encourage businesses which will employ permanent workforces to move into an area. The wind industry is slavering for our mountain summits. They don’t need encouragement. The Passadumkeag wind project will not bring full time jobs to the area–and certainly not to the tune of $5million.
Let’s bring common sense, ethics and realistic economics back into the equation. Penobscot County Commissioners must vote ‘no’ on this TIF request.
Respectfully,
Karen Pease
Lexington Twp., Maine
Does anyone see the hypocrisy of the Commissioners here? They say a vote for a TIF is NOT an endorsement of the project. Yet doing a TIF is providing huge corporate welfare that makes the project more viable and unfairly increases Quantum’s profitability at the expense of other taxpayers. How is that NOT an endorsement? The Commissioners who vote for a TIF for this undeserving project should all be recalled!
If there is so much profitability in wind power why do they need tax breaks.When the powers to be have to wait and study the plan it means they are trying to figure out a way to feather their own nest rather the help out the people.and 99% of the time the power generated goes to the big grid that doesnt stop in maine.Say no to tif districts
Here we go again. Another wind project getting undeserved tax welfare via a TIF. TIF for wind developments out in UTs is a heinous misinterpretation of what is a well intentioned and useful economic development tool. Industrial wind sites are not economic development; they are environmental destruction. In every case, these cause more economic harm than good. Just the loss of property value of year round and seasonal homes and loss of clientele for lodges and guides far outweighs the 4-5 permanent maintenance jobs generated by a wind site. Since this is the case, it should not qualify for TIF.
Something that irks me a great deal is the justification for a TIF is “more than half of the approximately $13 million in taxes it is expected to generate would go to the state presumably for distribution statewide”. What is wrong with that? Whenever a TIF is done for a wind site in a town, TIF is sheltered from state valuation. Every time that is done, it increases the tax burden on me, as I live in a town where there has never been a TIF and likely will never be. It is a form of unfair taxation in addition to welfare to an undeserving project and undeserving company.
There are view taxes, waterfront property taxes, tax breaks for certain groups. 1/2 acre is 1/2 acre and property is property yet the bureaucracy comes up with these exceptions that makes it fair for one and unfair for another. Just look at all the fees you have to pay. Here you pay your taxes. You the taxpayer own the local landfill, the state parks, the turnpike but you have to pay a fee to use something you already own. Out of control government. We never had to pay to use anything before the 70’s because we owned it and we still do and these crooks are robbing us blind.
If a TIF is not granted, the additional valuation of the windmills will help to reduce taxes for the residents and taxpayers of the Unorganized Territory statewide (including Penobscot County). The added valuation will also increase the amount of county tax that the Penobscot County Unorganized Territory pays, thus reducing the county tax burden on the municipalites within Penobscot County. It is misleading for Stumpel to claim the money goes to the “state.” This is an unorganized territory issue only. Plus, there is absolutely no reason to consider a 100% TIF when it could be for far less with the windmill company paying a fairer share of the taxes and for a shorter time period. We have no idea how long these windmills are going to last or for how long the company is going to be operating.
Crapola…..
Look at em!
These industries look like a bunch of school kids hanging around the variety store looking for free lolipops!
Shoo, Shooo, Go away!
No more tax breaks for wind power. They have been at the public trough far too long and are an unreliable and mediocre source of wind power. Not to mention they are a blight on the landscape We need to be focusing on sustainable forms of power.
Wind power ie large corporate developers/ land thieves 1
Maine private property owners/taxpayers 0
Reporter Nick Sambides’ story omittted some of the most serious reasons that the people of Penobscot County should oppose granting the wind power corporations local tax breaks. It is misleading to merely state attorney Stumpfel’s assertion that that ” the commissioners retain all of the tax dollars the project would generate during the last eight years of the 30-year period.” Wind turbines do not generate power over those years. The Commissioners were informned at the Hearing that the generous federal tax breaks that make wind power projects possible expire at the end of five years, the very time that nearly all of the working parts of turbines wear out. There has to be a reason why 14,000 turbines have been abandoned in the US, and more in other countries as well. The reason is the cost of replacing tons of components over 400 feet in the air is prohibitive. Smart investors recover their costs and profits over the first five years and no industrial wind turbine has been known to have lasted even 20 years. But our Commissioners do not seem to know much about the realities of wind power. Clyde MacDonald, Hampden.
Thank you Clyde for the facts. I don’t think the commissioners want to take the time to look into the wind cartel and their plans for thousands of wind turbine peppering the state. It is easier for them to listen to a wind lawyer then go about their own business.
Abuse of Tax dollars!!!!
SCAM!
Scam!
Lies!
Why would a Houston company with ties to Saudi megabucks need tax dollars from Maine citizens? Why would commissioners be so gullible as to give them anything? Washington County has some TIF freebies and do not know what to do with it. TIFs are to encourage manufacturing jobs employing many workers, not to support TIF lawyers and greedy developers from away.
Enroncrooks is so right! Lincoln is the perfect example of the best use of TIF and the worst use of TIF. The best: when the local paper mill wanted to expand by adding a new tissue paper machine, it received a TIF. This expansion not only led to 45 new union-scale jobs, but those jobs have a multiplier effect in the region. Plus, strengthening the company’s position in a very challenging industry helps it remain competetive, ensuring 400+ jobs in the local economy. This is a huge impact resulting from the TIF.
Another target of the intent of TIF is to combat blight. After the huge empty space left in downtown Lincoln from a fire that wiped out a whole block of buildings stayed undeveloped for 5 years, a project for elderly housing was built, using TIF. Now there is a landmark building that also meets a social need for affordable elderly housing instead of blight. Again, a project that meets the intent of TIF.
Then, there is the sprawling Rollins Wind project. This project received a TIF, but created blight instead of combating it. The ever-present 40 turbines, each 389 ft. tall, has ruined the “Quality of Place” of Lincoln Lakes, caused hundreds of property owners to lose value and caused some residents to have noise and health concerns. The project blasted away the ridges and changed the character of the area. First Wind also recieved an outright grant of $53.2 million in ARRA Sec. 1603 funds from the taxpayer—did it really need a TIF from Lincoln and 3 other towns? How many permanent full time jobs were created? First Wind never lets us know, but my guess, based on an industry standard of about one maintenance worker for every 10 turbines, would be 4 to 6. NOT a decent ROI on a TIF!