Tax Abatement Concern
To the Editor:
During the February Commissioners’ Court meeting, guidelines for tax abatement were suddenly put forward and the county agreed to establish a tax abatement policy. Since the guidelines had not been made public at that time, the official guidelines for the county were not passed until a future meeting.
Unfortunately, no requirements were stated for added number of jobs, which was a point being made by commissioners in leading up to this tax abatement policy. An application is on the table from 7V Solar Ranch which, after completion of the construction will add ONE new job in the county. So, Commissioner Berckenhoff’s hope that it would “give an opportunity...and possibly some jobs for younger people who want to stay here” will not be met by this enterprise.
The application by 7V Solar Ranch is asking for a 75 % abatement of property taxes for 10 years.
The Feb. 18 FC Record also stated that 7V Solar Ranch has applied for a “value limitation agreement” with the Flatonia ISD through the State Comptroller’s Office. Perhaps this application has been reported in detail as to what relief 7V is asking for with Flatonia ISD, but I have not yet seen that report. Perhaps I missed it in the FC Record. Or perhaps this type of agreement is between the 7V Ranch and the State and the Flatonia ISD and is NOT meant for public transparency. The Flatonia ISD tax rate is about three times the rate for the county so that one could reasonably multiply all the county tax information by three to understand the tax situation for the Flatonia ISD. The citizens of Fayette County should know exactly how much money we are being asked for to subsidize this enterprise. Will the Flatonia ISD be required to develop and pass a tax abatement plan of their own since the Fayette County plan applies only to property taxes collected for the county (county and road and bridge)? And, presumably, the ground water conservation district will be able to collect their full tax.
Solar technology is changing quite rapidly, and 10 years is a very long time and we will see many changes in these solar panels over the years. These farms must maintain efficiency if they expect to be competitive in the marketplace.
I urge the commissioners to ignore the statement that the project is not viable without tax relief. This is simply a threat to improve 7 V Solar Ranch LLC’s risk/reward ratio.
Finally, I suggest the commissioners limit the tax abatement for this project to not more than 50% and for not more than five years.
N Mercer
Round Top
Editor’s Note:
For more information on two of the issues referenced above see the below links:
Application for Ch. 313 School Value Limitation Agreement with Flatonia ISD: https://comptroller.texas.gov/economy/local/ch313/agreement-docs-details.php?id=1446 Application for Fayette
Application for Fayette County Tax Abatement: https://www.co.fayette.tx.us/upload/page/1777/docs/Candela%20Renewables%20-Fayette%20County%20Abatement%20Application%20for%207V%20Solar.pdf