The Tooele County School Board has decided to support a property tax incentive for two solar energy projects planned for western Tooele County.
After reviewing the financial payout for schools, the Tooele County school Board voted unanimously to support the community reinvestment area plans for Enyo Renewable Energy.
Enyo has proposed two large scale solar projects in Tooele County.
One project, the Elektron Solar project, is on 1,280 acres east of Rowley Road in Timpie. Enyo estimates it will make an $83.1 million investment in the Elektron project. The other project, the Horseshoe Solar project, is on 1,708 acres in Skull Valley near Interstate 80. Enyo expects its investment at the Horseshoe project site to reach $74.1 million.
In October, the Tooele County School Board said it wasn’t interested in giving up property tax revenue to participate in tax incentive financing, but during its Nov. 13 meeting indicated it was interested in a tax incentive agreement for a solar project in Tooele County.
During the Nov. 13 meeting, School Board member Scott Bryan pointed out that Enyo’s proposed project was different from other economic development projects that the school district has been asked to support in the past.
“Currently, we receive no tax from the property,” he said. “There is no impact on our services, but we gain something. We’re not really giving anything up and that makes a big difference.”
The proposed 20-year incentive plan for the Elektron project calls for a $6.3 million property tax incentive for Enyo over the 20-year period. The school district will receive $126,000 in new revenue from the project area in the first year. Over the 20 years of the agreement the school district will receive a total of $1.4 million in new revenue.
For the Horseshoe project, Enyo will receive a $4.8 million property tax incentive. The school district will receive $158,000 in the first year of the 20-year agreement and $1.8 million of total new revenue over the 20-year lifetime of the project area agreement.
Both project areas are on School and Institutional Trust Land property from which the school district currently receives no property tax.
Community reinvestment areas are the latest public tax increment financing tool authorized in 2016 by the state Legislature. They replace redevelopment project areas. Community reinvestment areas use real and personal property tax generated by growth from within a project area to finance redevelopment activities in the area.
The bulk of the property tax generated by the solar projects will come from the value of the solar panels and other equipment to be installed by Enyo on the property.
During the lifetime of a community reinvestment area, the increased property tax received due to development activity in the area is diverted to pay for incentives for the developer.
When the community project area expires, 100 percent of the property tax generated from the project area is distributed to the taxing entities based on their current property tax rates.