Legislature’s final energy bill preserves local taxing authority

In a significant victory for cities and towns, the final energy bill developed by a joint House-Senate conference committee would preserve the ability of communities to collect property taxes or negotiate a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreement on solar and renewable energy facilities.

The MMA and local officials across the state have been communicating with legislators all year, expressing concerns about provisions in earlier versions of the bill, passed by the House and Senate, that would have exempted certain renewable energy facilities, including commercial solar facilities, from the local property tax. Instead, communities would have collected a much lower PILOT equal to 5 percent of electricity sales.

In essence, the previous versions of the legislation would have provided developers with a windfall, while reducing revenues that communities collect and use to pay for critical local services.

Under current law, municipalities have the discretion to tax energy facility equipment or to negotiate a PILOT agreement with the utility.

The MMA and local officials had argued that, since Massachusetts ranks second in the nation in the development of solar facilities, there was no good reason to radically alter the taxation system and undermine local taxing authority.

The members of the conference committee (Reps. John Keenan, Kate Hogan and Matthew Beaton, and Sens. Ben Downing, Stephen Brewer and Robert Hedlund) removed the tax provisions from the final bill.

The legislation is intended to reduce the cost of electricity in Massachusetts and promote the energy goals of the 2008 Green Communities Act.

The Legislature is expected to enact the compromise energy bill and send it to the governor as soon as today.