Hoosick Town Board Debate On Solar Tax Exemptions
by Alex Brooks
The Hoosick Town Board heard commentary at its December 10 meeting from Town Attorney Jonathan Schopf, Town Assessor Anthony Rice, and Town Board member Eric Sheffer on the question of what to do about Tax exemptions for solar and wind installations.
State law has set it up so that such projects are exempt from municipal taxation unless the Town passes a law opting out of the exemptions set up in the State law. Only about 10% of municipalities in the state have opted out of these exemptions. The Town Board held a discussion about whether to opt out.
Attorney Schopf suggested that they look into establishing a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) program rather than opting out of the exemptions. He said this would be a compromise of sorts, which would honor the intent of the state legislation while still generating some new income for the Town from solar installations. Rice and Sheffer said they had spoken with officials from the County and with members of the Brunswick Town government, and the PILOTs seemed to be a good way to deal with this issue. The Town of Brunswick has passed legislation enabling PILOT agreements which everyone seemed to think would make a good model for Hoosick to use in crafting its own. No action was taken, but Schopf said he would look into it more and present a more detailed description of how the PILOTs would work at a subsequent meeting.
Bond For Bath House Renovation
The Board passed a resolution authorizing a Bond, not to exceed $300,000, to pay for the recently completed renovation of the Bath House at the Town Pool. Supervisor Mark Surdam said the total cost of the work on the Bath House is expected to be about $380,000. The Town had a grant for the project for $123,000, so all costs above that amount would be paid by the Bond authorized here.
IT Services Contract
The Board passed a motion accepting a contract proposal from Business Automation Services (BAS) for IT management services including cybersecurity, data backup, and the like. The proposal was originally offered in June of 2017, and the Board thought that they did need to purchase such services, but the cost is significant, and at that time it was not in the budget. The Board has put it in the budget for 2019, so it is now ready to approve a contract with BAS. There will be an initial set-up fee of $9,000, and thereafter there is a quarterly management fee of $1,300.
LED Project
Supervisor Surdam said the changeover to LED lighting at the Highway Garage has been completed. The contract was with a company called Integra, but they hired local electrical contractor J.A. Bradley to do the work. They changed 75 lighting fixtures and the lighting is greatly improved – significantly brighter than before. Surdam said Highway Superintendent Bill Shiland is very happy with the results. The cost to the Town for this project was $11,093, and the expected annual savings from the more efficient lights is $1,327.