| Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005. |
Wind farm dispute causing nearly $800,000 to be withheld from Davis public schools
Credit: By Kemper Ball | KXII | Jan. 19, 2022 | www.kxii.com ~~
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Murray county is home to two wind farms totaling 175 windmills.
When they first arrived they were given a 5 year tax exemption.
Now that their tax exemption has ended the amount they owe is determined by their property value but that value is being disputed.
“For this past year $189 million is what we had it valued at and they’re thinking it should be valued at $78 million,” said Murray County assessor Scott Kirby.
One group that this money would go to is the Davis Public School system, and the dispute means a significant portion of that money is unavailable to them.
“Right now since there’s a huge protest we only get funded off what is not protested,” said Davis Public Schools superintendent Mark Moring. “So say they’re protesting 40 percent of their property taxes we only get 60 percent of that.”
That amounts to nearly $800,000 that would go to the schools being held in escrow.
But because the wind farms are still paying its costing the district money from other sources.
“The school funding formula is a balancing scale basically,” Moring said. “More local less state more state less local and basically both sides of our scale are dropping.”
This problem is not unique to Murray county.
Districts across the state are going through similar disputes with other wind farms.
“Now we’re waiting on the ruling to determine if that could set a precedent as to how these wind farms are valued,” Kirby said.
These disputes can take years to resolve putting school districts like Davis in a difficult position.
“We can withstand it for another, hopefully another year but past that its going to be pretty tough,” Moring said.
For now all the district can do is wait and hope that the higher courts make a decision that helps free up the money they need.
“I believe the Oklahoma supreme court is going to hear a case, an appeal hopefully this summer on this and I think there’s some headway in the house to do something to help fix this problem,” Moring said.
This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.
The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.
| Wind Watch relies entirely on User Contributions |
 (via Stripe) |
 (via Paypal) |
Share:
[ Short URL: https://wind-watch.org/news/?p=102724 ]
