GISD approves wind farm application

Graham ISD Wednesday approved a wind farm application and agreement with Young Wind, LLC, for an appraised limitation on qualified property for school district maintenance and operations. The district also approved waiving the job creation requirement within the Chapter 313 agreement.

The 500MW wind farm project created by Apex Clean Energy will have 144MW inside GISD covering a total of 12,731.62 acres in GISD, with the remainder in Newcastle ISD, according the agreement to the comptroller. In a previous board meeting, GISD Superintendent Sonny Cruse said NextEra Energy purchased the project.

In November 2021, the GISD board received a status update on the wind farm project Young Wind, LLC. GISD and Newcastle ISD granted a property value limitation under Chapter 313 of the Tax Code, and GISD were waiting for the Texas Comptroller’s office regarding documentation related to the project. The district retained Moak, Casey & Associates to prepare an analysis of the value limitation and help the district with the process of filing a Chapter 313 application and the wind farm agreement process. Apex is investing $163.9 million into new taxable value to construct a renewable wind energy electric generation facility.

“So basically what the company did on their application is they said they want you guys to grant them a $10 million taxable value limitation from M&O (Maintenance and Operations) purposes. (...) They want that to start in the 2023 tax year. We call that VL1, Value Limitation year one. The maximum taxable value of the project occurs in VL1 (in) 2023 (and is) $163.9 million. So you are not going to collect taxes on $163.9 million for M&O purposes. You are only going to collect taxes on $10 million for M&O purposes in the first year of the limitation and then for the next 10 years. For I&S (Interest and Sinking) purposes, it is fully taxable at the $163.9 million and of course from there it depreciates down,” Kathy Mathias, of Moak, Casey & Associates said in November 2021.

A public hearing was held with the meeting Wednesday to disclose the Texas comptroller’s results for the Chapter 313 application certification process. Mali Hanley, a consultant from O’Hanlon, McCollom & Demerath, said the public hearing was a requirement to document the findings.

For the rest of the story, see the Feb. 12 edition of The Graham Leader.