Schools sue over tax plan - The Naples Record

Posted with the permission of The Naples Record, originally published Wednesday April, 9, 2008

Naples, Prattsburgh districts want wind turbine PILOT plan tossed

The Naples and Prattsburgh school districts filed lawsuits recently against the Town of Prattsburgh, the Steuben County Industrial Development Agency and other agencies alleging that the payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement for the 36-turbine wind farm project creates a significant loss in anticipated revenues for the schools. Both districts want the tax agree­ment thrown out for the wind turbines that stretch along hill­sides in Prattsburgh and Naples.

According to separate complaints filed in Steuben County Supreme Court, Prattsburgh schools will lose $1.3 million in anticipated revenues, and the Naples school district as much as $560,000 in expected revenues, the Corning Leader reported last Friday.

The annual losses are based on the number of wind turbines located in each district. Payments-in-lieu-of-taxes allow an industry to operate for up to 20 years without paying the full value of its property tax. Instead, the businesses pay a set fee each year, which gradually increases to full taxation.

By state law, the county and towns generally split 52-58 percent of the annual payments, with the school districts taking in 47-48 percent of the money. But the tax agreement wind farm developer UPC signed with the Town of Prattsburgh did not provide any funds for the school districts. The Town agreement was then used to sharply reduce the tax payments, accordingly to lawyers for the both districts.

Edward Primo, attorney for the Naples school district, told the Leader that SCIDA failed to work on behalf of all the groups affected by the tax payment package.

“It’s supposed to benefit not just one of them, but all of them,” Primo said Thursday. Prattsburgh Central School Superintendent Joseph Rumsey said the action is designed to give the board of education more time to study its options.
Prattsburgh town and SCIDA officials worked “largely behind the scenes” to prevent the school districts from participating in the agreements according to the Naples complaint.

Other allegations include:

• A deliberate intention by SCIDA to get around general municipal law.
• Lack of consultation with the school districts.
• Action designed to benefit the town to the district’s detri­ment.
• Incomplete information provided to districts on the devel­opers, project scope or number of turbines in the districts.
• Improper public notice by the Town of Prattsburgh of pub­lic meetings and the hosting agreement.
• Districts have either received incomplete documents or no documents on the final tax agreement after formal requests.

Other agencies named in the lawsuit are Steuben County as a recipient of the PILOT payments and Windfarm Prattsburgh, the local UPC agent.