{"id":12517,"date":"2012-11-14T16:40:22","date_gmt":"2012-11-14T21:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/?p=12517"},"modified":"2012-11-14T16:51:30","modified_gmt":"2012-11-14T21:51:30","slug":"wind-farm-means-relief-for-grotons-tax-payers-but-not-lempsters-what-could-it-mean-for-grafton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/2012\/11\/14\/wind-farm-means-relief-for-grotons-tax-payers-but-not-lempsters-what-could-it-mean-for-grafton\/","title":{"rendered":"Wind Farm Brings Relief For Taxpayers in Groton, But Not Lempster. And Grafton?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Residents of Grafton gathered Tuesday night for a town-hall style meeting hosted by the Spanish renewable energy company Iberdrola. The company is hoping to build a wind farm in Grafton, and has already developed wind farms in Groton and Lempster. One of the selling points for towns is the potential for tax revenue from the wind farm to offset residents\u2019 property taxes. \u00a0This is a quick look at how property taxes in Groton and Lempster have been affected by Iberdrola\u2019s wind farms.<\/p>\n

Pam Hamel, the administrative assistant to the Groton Selectboard, says that overall the wind farm is \u201ca very good project for the town of Groton.\u201d\u00a0 Beginning when the farm goes online at the end of this year, Iberdrola will pay Groton $528,000 annually with a 2.5 percent annual increase in PILOT (Payment In Lieu Of Taxes) payments to the town of Groton. While the county tax burden will likely increase by $100,000 because of the wind farm, Hamel says that cost will be offset by the PILOT payments \u2013 leaving Groton with a net gain of more than $428,000 every year.\u00a0 Even before the PILOT payments have gone into effect, Groton has been able to lower the town\u2019s tax rate by $1.77, with funds from the wind farm\u2019s one-time land use change tax. \u00a0And unlike most other towns, education funding for Groton students is not tied to property values, which means that the wind farm won\u2019t increase education costs for the town.<\/p>\n

That makes Groton different from the town of Lempster, which is part of a cooperative school district. As such, 50 percent of Lempster\u2019s school funding is based on the town\u2019s property values.\u00a0 \u201cSo as the equalized valuation for Lempster went up, we ended up paying a larger portion in school taxes than we had been,\u201d says Barbara Richards, Lempster\u2019s Deputy Town Clerk. In fact, the town of Lempster\u2019s education taxes increased by $317,722 the year after the wind farm went online \u2013 although other economic variables may also have played a part in the increase. That cost, in addition to the $186,137 the town paid in additional county taxes after the wind farm arrived, means that Lempster residents have not experienced the windfall they may have hoped for. Richards says that while the town\u2019s tax rates decreased for one year after the wind farm opened at the end of 2008, they rose above pre-wind mill rates the following year \u2013 when the town\u2019s new property valuation kicked in.<\/p>\n

In Groton, town officials are still deciding what to do with the PILOT payments they\u2019ll be receiving from the wind farm — which almost double the town\u2019s operating budget.\u00a0 Pam Hamel says they are discussing road improvements; lowering the tax rate even more than they already have; and putting money into capital reserve funds.\u00a0 She says the wind farm\u2019s positive economic impact is enough to create population growth in the town of fewer than 600. In anticipation, Groton\u2019s Selectboard is holding a community meeting to discuss land use restrictions as a protection against uncontrolled growth. That meeting will be held Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

If Iberdrola and the town of Grafton decide to move forward with a wind farm, residents and officials there will most certainly be looking to lessons learned by those in Lempster and Groton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Residents of Grafton gathered Tuesday night for a town-hall style meeting hosted by the Spanish renewable energy company Iberdrola. The company is hoping to build a wind farm in Grafton, and has already developed wind farms in Groton and Lempster. One of the selling points for towns is the potential for tax revenue from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":12518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[474,51,53],"tags":[440,521,439],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12517"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12517"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12523,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12517\/revisions\/12523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}