County speaks about solar farm tax abatement

The Young County Commissioners Court spoke regarding the next steps on the Tapaderos Solar farm project at their meeting and a potential tax abatement that could come with the project.

The commissioners spoke Monday, June 2 with Capex Resources to discuss consultation about a tax abatement for the solar project. 

Jeff Snowden, principal of Capex Consulting Group, presented to the commissioners about the abatement while also the court received comments from the public. 

One of the first major pieces of information Snowden presented was that the project would actually come in at hire value than presented in the project application. 

“They stated in the application that this project is worth $264.6 million. When I look at my databases, I’m telling this project is actually worth $510 million,” Snowden said. “It’s not uncommon for the developers to understate the values.”

Snowden said that it is crucial the commissioners court speaks to its Young County developers to account for these discrepancies because that would add around 30% to the project’s taxable value. 

The other major talking point for the commissioners court in regards to the solar farm project was the application payments in lieu of taxes (pilot). 

County Judge Win Graham went into further detail about what this would mean for the project. 

“One of my questions that we (Graham and Snowden) talked about was the value of a pilot,” Graham said. “It started off to where the pilot was maybe 30% so 70% of the taxes were being abated, then it’s kind of moved to 50-50.” 

Snowden said that having that level of taxable value, along with the county's track record of lowering tax values would allow the court to lock in an abatement between 25-35% and keep about 65-75% of the revenue with the project which would hold the current tax rate for the county stable. 

There were some concerns from the public about these new conditions, such as any sales tax implemented on components of the solar farm like batteries. 

However, Graham clarified that under Snowden’s agreement, any additions to the solar farm would have to be specifically identified as eligible for sales tax and would be paid for by those installing additions in the areas where they are activated. 

While the county judge has been involved with discussions in these commissioners’ court meetings, Graham in past meetings has said that he cannot cast any votes on future items related to the project due to a conflict of interest. 

In particular, Graham said back in January that his family owns “a significant portion of minerals” underneath the solar farm and therefore withdrew himself from voting.

The project has been in the works for a number of months. Titus LVC president Jeff Ferguson and Texas Energy Consultants president Robert Pena first presented the project Monday, Jan. 27 with the commissioners court. 

The next major step in development came during the commissioners court’s Monday, Feb. 24 meeting. 

Members of the public opened up with questions and concerns regarding the project for safety, appearance and other concerns they voiced to the commissioners.

Ultimately, the commissioners chose to table any vote on a tax abatement for the project until a further date. 

The solar project is a proposed 300 megawatt power facility with 200 megawatts of battery energy storage with the focus of increasing renewable energy. 

The commissioners will discuss a potential abatement plan at future meetings.