The Marmaton Valley school district will get a little more wind farm money this year, and other school districts will see a financial windfall as well.
But there are no guarantees the county will continue to provide that money in the future. Commissioners made a point of saying they’re under no obligation to give wind farm money to the school districts.
“There’s some misunderstanding out there. This is not money owed to anybody,” Commissioner David Lee said. “The needs of the county going forward may dictate this gift stay in-house instead of going out.”
This is the second year the county is dispersing a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) paid by the Prairie Queen Wind Farm. The county agreed to abate property taxes for the wind farm for 10 years and instead accept an annual payment of $250,000.
Last year, commissioners gave equal payments of $50,000 each to the Marmaton Valley, Iola and Humboldt districts, the Rural Regional Technical Center at LaHarpe, and kept a portion for the county.
Since then, some Moran residents said they believed Marmaton Valley should get a bigger share because the wind turbines are located in that school district.
Lee said he didn’t think the RRTC should get as much, since other districts contribute to the educational center.
Chairman Jerry Daniels estimated how much the Marmaton Valley district would get if the wind farm were subjected to property taxes: about $60,000. He also asked Lee to come up with a fair funding amount for the RRTC.
Lee calculated a per-student rate for all Allen County students who use the tech center, and came up with $23,100. Commissioners rounded it up to $25,000.
That makes the PILOT breakdown as follows:
$60,000 to Marmaton Valley.
$50,000 each to the Iola and Humboldt school districts.
$25,000 to the RRTC.
$65,000 to the county.
DANIELS noted the school district was given an opportunity to negotiate any type of payment with the wind farm company before the project was completed.
Initially, discussion about giving the money to the school districts was based on a desire to help all of the county, he and Commissioner Bruce Symes noted. The original goal was to help schools improve security, but the money wasn’t given with any sort of stipulations for its use.
They pointed out that Humboldt residents aren’t directly affected, but its students still benefited from the disbursement.
“What’s good for all of Allen County is part of my thought process on everything,” Symes said.
