by Alex Brooks
The Hoosick Town Board held a Public Hearing on its proposed PILOT law on Tuesday evening, March 19. There were no comments either positive or negative about the law, although Jeff Wysocki did ask for clarification on exemptions.
State law on solar installations makes them exempt from local property tax by default, but it allows Towns to opt out of the automatic exemption and make them taxable. Only about 15% of towns have opted out of the exemptions. Locally, Schaghticoke has opted out, according to Town Assessor Tony Rice, who said large solar projects are not feasible there as a result.
Hoosick is trying to steer a middle course by implementing a PILOT law. Town Supervisor Mark Surdam said the Board’s feeling was that if they just let the full exemption stand, large projects might be built in the Town that would have no benefit to the local community. Deputy Supervisor Eric Sheffer said the Town does not want to chase solar developers out of town, but it wants to make sure projects provide a benefit to the local community. He said the pioneering Town for this approach was the Town of Brunswick. He said Brunswick worked with the County and consulted solar developers to come up with “something that everyone can live with.” Hoosick’s law is based on the PILOT law that Brunswick eventually put in place.
Sheffer emphasized that when Brunswick was developing this law, “the heads of solar companies were sitting on the other side of the table.”
Hoosick’s PILOT law does not specify the amount of the PILOT payment. The Town would like to have flexibility to create a PILOT for each project. Sheffer said Brunswick has hosted two solar projects so far, and these can serve as models for Hoosick when they need to determine the size of a PILOT payment for a project in Hoosick. Rice said the annual payments for these projects were in the neighborhood of $6,000 per megawatt of capacity.
Residential solar projects are exempt from this law, and they are defined as projects of less than 50 kilowatts AC installed on a residential property and serving a residential dwelling on that property.
Accompanying the PILOT law is an “intermunicipal agreement” about sharing of the PILOT payments from solar projects, which gives 50% of the payment to the Hoosick Falls School District, 25% to the Town, and 25% to Rensselaer County.
Pool Prices
The Board also discussed setting prices for use of the pool for the upcoming season. The Town has not raised prices for several years, and the Board felt that with the cost of keeping up the pool rising and pool revenues falling far short of pool expenses, at least a modest increase in pool fees is needed. After a good deal of discussion, season prices are $100 for family and $60 for individual (these prices are $5 higher after June 15), and $40 for adult morning swim. The daily rate is $3, and swim lessons are $40 for a 2-week session for residents (3 or more kids from one family pay $90 per family) and $55 per session for non-residents.