JEFFERSON CITY – Disagreements over tips on how to tax Missouri’s giant photo voltaic power farms might not be resolved within the upcoming legislative session.
At a gathering Monday, a particular panel of state lawmakers, native tax assessors and renewable power teams finalized a report they compiled designed to handle the disputes between native governments and photo voltaic power corporations over property taxes.
However the chairman of the Process Pressure on Honest, Nondiscriminatory Native Taxation Regarding Photo voltaic Power Methods mentioned he’s not certain that a right away resolution is sooner or later.
“I do not know that we have solved something,” mentioned Sen. Mike Cierpiot, R-Lee’s Summit. “I do not know if we will do something this yr.”
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Lawmakers start their annual legislative session in January. It’s going to final till mid-Could.
The group was tasked with making a report to assist lawmakers create a tax coverage for photo voltaic initiatives. This assembly started after the Missouri Supreme Court docket struck down a 2013 state legislation in August that offered a property tax exemption for sure photo voltaic power methods.
The court docket mentioned the tax break was not allowed below the state structure. The case entails a photo voltaic farm that provides power for Springfield. The ruling means the corporate owes Greene County greater than $400,000 in again taxes.
The excessive court docket’s choice got here as Florida-based NextEra Power Sources negotiated a cope with Callaway County to construct a big photo voltaic farm north of Jefferson Metropolis.
Progress on the proposed 100-megawatt mission has sparked controversy within the New Bloomfield space.
Callaway County Commissioner Roger Fischer, for instance, advised the Put up-Dispatch earlier that requiring photo voltaic mission builders to pay property taxes would carry more cash to the county than by means of a negotiated funds from corporations as an alternative of taxes.
In line with the report, Missouri wants a uniform technique for estimating photo voltaic property for all the state, as an alternative of the state’s 114 counties and the St. Louis negotiated their very own offers with photo voltaic corporations.
“The photo voltaic trade ought to pay its fair proportion of property taxes to counties, college districts and different taxing jurisdictions,” the report mentioned.
However, as a lawmaker mentioned on Monday, the ultimate report doesn’t present a particular street map for addressing the considerations of opponents about putting photo voltaic panels on productive farmland.
“Weeds do not get it,” mentioned Rep. Doug Richey, R-Excelsior Springs.
He agreed that figuring out the uniform technique of taxation of initiatives is the following aim.
Moreover, the report states that tax revenues generated by photo voltaic initiatives ought to be retained within the county the place the property is positioned, somewhat than distributed throughout county traces as is the case with the company tax. within the utility.
The panel additionally didn’t handle tax-related points raised about photo voltaic panels put in on rooftops.
Cierpiot mentioned time constraints have been the primary motive for the committee’s shortcomings. Its first assembly was in October, and the panel is working below a December 31 deadline to current its work.
“It helped me higher perceive these points,” Cierpiot mentioned.
