Senate action means uniformity in wind farm taxation
<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">Property tax assessments for Illinois wind farms, which in the past have been computed in different ways depending on their location, now will be calculated in a uniform manner.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">The Illinois Senate on Friday voted 55-1 to override Gov. Rod Blagojevich's partial veto of House Bill 664, which deals mainly with Cook County property tax assessments but also includes provisions on assessing wind farms.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">The governor used his amendatory veto power last month to recommend changes to the Cook County parts of the legislation. He left intact the remainder of the bill, including the portions pertaining to wind farms.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">But lawmakers had to vote on the bill as a whole when they considered whether to accept or reject the governor's revisions.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">The House last week overrode Blagojevich's veto. The Senate's identical action on Friday means the entire measure will become law immediately, despite his objections.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">During Senate floor debate on the bill, no one mentioned wind farms.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">But Sen. Dan Rutherford, a Chenoa Republican who has been involved with the wind farm issue, said later that the new law will benefit wind farm developers and taxing bodies.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">"It will remove a question mark of the process of taxation," Rutherford said. "You know what the assessment process would be if you are in Livingston County or in McLean County or in Tazewell County."</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">To date, Illinois counties have applied different methodologies in assessing wind farms. That has complicated property assessments for wind farms that cross county lines.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">Under the new standardization law, a wind farm installed this year will pay a tax of $9,000 per megawatt. That figure will drop slightly each year because of physical depreciation. </font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">The wind farm portions of the new law will expire in 2011. Lawmakers have said they included that "sunset" date so they can analyze how well the change works.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">Adriana Colindres can be reached at (217) 782-6292 or adriana.colindres@sj-r.com.</font>