Friday, July 4, 2008
Wind turbine deal spins up controversy
Business First of Buffalo - by David Bertola Business First
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Jim Courtney
Mayor Norman Polanski has has cut two deals involving windmills in Lackawanna.
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Said Hashem: "From the date of opting out, no one could leave the school district out of negotiations or any settlement agreement." This includes the tentative one signed this past spring, a 15-year PILOT.
The first Steel Winds project pays Lackawanna $12,500 a year for each of the eight towers, totaling $100,000.
New deal pays highest rates in the state
According to Dan Spitzer, an attorney who represents the city on Steel Winds II, the tentative agreement will pay $10,000 per megawatt generated, or about $325,000 a year. The City of Lackawanna will get about half of that, around $162,000 a year. Forty percent, about $130,000, will go to the school district.
It's unclear as to how the remaining 10 percent would be allocated. Curran and Polanski didn't specify whether the county would benefit from the PILOT.
Spitzer, a partner in the municipal and energy law department at Hodgson Russ LLP, estimates he has worked on a dozen such payment agreements statewide the last few years. Of the proposed Steel Winds II payment structure, he said, "I believe the payments are the highest in the state."
Lackawanna, Hamburg to cut property taxes
Polanski said the $262,000 per year from Steel Winds I and II will offset cost increases and be used to cut property taxes. The annual figures could increase or decrease, he said, per some accelerators or decelerators in the payment structure.
Polanski added the city has cut property taxes three years in a row, and the new PILOT could result in another decrease in 2009.
A timeline for Steel Winds II construction has not been established. It calls for 18 new windmills, with five on land in Hamburg. For those units, a separate PILOT is being worked on between BQ, the Town of Hamburg and Frontier Central School District. Once construction begins, Curran said, the new windmills could be up in six months.
While the agreement with Hamburg isn't final, Town Supervisor Steven Walters said Hamburg stands to earn $125,000 annually from it. He said it might be used to cut taxes and boost the town's general fund.
To negotiate a separate PILOT with BQ, Walters said the two municipalities created a united front, with Lackawanna leading the wa
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