The Howard County Board of Commissioners have put in place an informal and temporary “pause” on all private and large-scale commercial and industrial projects due to the uncertainty around the state’s property relief bill expected to cost the county future tax revenue.
The move, for now, keeps a proposed and contentious commercial solar farm project for eastern Howard County in limbo, a place it’s been for several months now.
The pause was announced Monday at the commissioners meeting. Commissioner Jeff Lipinski, R-District 1, announced the measure with a prepared statement, citing the fact the county does not yet know how much of its property tax revenue will be affected by SEA 1.
The full statement read Monday is as follows:
“Howard County, like all taxing units, are extremely concerned with the effects that Senate Bill 1 will have on county operations and finances, both now and in the future. We have consulted for several weeks now with the county’s financial advisor Baker and Tilly and other experts as to what the impact will be felt by Howard County and the taxpayers from this bill. Despite the county’s due diligence, the impact is still uncertain, and there are many unknowns. We have yet to receive a definite answer on the bill’s impact.”
After the meeting, the commissioners clarified the pause only pertains to projects that bring in property tax revenue and it does not pertain to the new county jail, which the county is court-ordered to build.
The pause is informal and temporary, Commissioner President Jack Dodd, R-District 2, added, as the board did not hold a formal vote or put a moratorium in place.
It does so largely by creating a credit for 10% off every homestead’s bill and by limiting how much local governments and school districts can raise in property taxes in the future.
The bill also increases the amount businesses are exempt from paying taxes on their equipment, known as personal property, from $80,000 to $1 million in 2026 and $2 million in 2027. It also phases out the longstanding 30% depreciation floor for personal property.
Both personal property parts of the bill are likely to hit Howard County disproportionately hard due to its large manufacturing base.
To help offset the reduction in property tax revenue, SEA 1 allows municipalities to raise local income taxes.
The commissioners’ statement was re-read at the Howard County Drainage Board meeting held later that same day.
On the drainage board’s agenda that night was the drainage plan for Emerald Green Solar, a 200 MW commercial solar farm project led by ENGIE North America that was publicly announced back in 2020.
Due to the commissioners’ desires for a pause, the board tabled a vote on the solar farm, the third time it’s done so in five months.
If the delays have upset or annoyed ENGIE, it hasn’t yet publicly shown it.
Tom Schoder, of ENGIE and the lead project developer for Emerald Green Solar, reiterated at the drainage board meeting the company believes its drainage plan meets the county’s requirements, would improve the drainage in the project area through the planting of a “dense” cover crop and that it feels it’s not responsible to fix the “historical drainage challenges” within the entire Robert Roberts watershed.
“I just wanted to emphasize that our application was submitted back in December, and there has been sufficient review time here from the board and surveyor,” he said. “It’s been deemed that our application does meet the drainage ordinance requirements, and, as such, we would like to make the request that the board here tonight vote on our drainage application.”
If the project receives drainage plan approval, it would next need to receive development plan approval from the Howard County Plan Commission.
What specific concerns the commissioners have about SEA 1 and its relationship with the Emerald Green Solar project is unclear. If built, the solar farm is expected to generate tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue over its lifespan and is not likely to receive any tax abatement or any other major incentive from the county government.
When asked by the Tribune, Dodd did not get specific, stressed his support for green energy but also downplayed the purported economic benefits of the proposed solar farm.
“It was all of it,” Dodd said of the commissioners’ concerns over SEA 1 and how it pertains to Emerald Green. “Here’s my thing, if you take away what the farmers are going to do — the jobs they create, the seeds they buy, the diesel fuel they buy, the farm equipment they buy here in Howard County — and then you have something like a solar farm, they’re only going to have one of two (permanent) jobs. And once they put things in, then what? What does that do? So we’ve got to weigh it out. Green energy, there is a need for it. People don’t want to see that but there is, so we’ve got weight all this out and do what’s best for the taxpayers.”