June 13, 2007
Illinois
Illinois
With two proposed wind farm developments beginning in Iroquois County, the Iroquois County Board’s Planning and Zoning Committee heard from Bob Yergler, county supervisor of assessments, Friday.
Yergler said he has researched the ways other counties tax wind towers.
He said while the tax is called a production tax, it is really based on what it costs to build a tower. Currently, he said, the building cost is figured at $1.5 million.
From that number, he said, counties use a percentage of real property versus personal property. That precentage varies from 25 percent to 100 percent, just in the three counties in Illinois where the tax is in effect.
Yergler said the amount of the building cost times the percentage is then multiplied by the production capability of the tower to figure the tax.
Because Iroquois County currently has no way to tax wind towers, Yergler said he believes some kind of tax needs to be created.
He also said the wind tower companies are promising benefits to citizens at public meetings. Without county action to tax the wind towers, he said, the county, school districts and other taxing bodies will not receive this benefit.
“I think it’s a disservice to the residents of the county if we don’t do this,” he said. “If we allow a wind farm and don’t reap a benefit, it will be on us.”
A full version of this story appears in the June 12 edition of the Times-Republic.
By Erin Doss
Reporter
12 June 2007
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2007/06/13/county-committee-discusses-possible-wind-tower-tax/