Solar Farms cost Taxpayers money. We need to question their value

We need to understand all the consequences of solar farms before we let them in.

By Steve Balich, Patch Poster | Mar 16, 2018 8:46 pm ET 

My name is Steve Balich. Mike Fricilone and I are your Representatives on the Will County Board. As a member of the Will County Land Use Committee we are in discussion of solar farms. We approved very reluctantly one about 2 months ago, but now more information has come to light. The committee was aware that the solar farm company could not make a profit without the subsidy's which was a huge problem to me. Our staff insisted that if the company's go out of business the scrap would cover the cost of removal. That seemed to be the main concern.

Now we have 3 more sites a solar company wants to develop. After hours of discussion in the Land Use Committee there was mixed feelings. In the Republican Caucus prior to the monthly County Board meeting discussion started again and we decided to table everything concerning solar farms till we can really understand the consequences.

1. The subsidies are not a tax, rather a charge on your electric bill right now. This means everyone is paying on their electric bill to make a private solar company a profit and the land owner of the solar lease a large profit. All at our expense. I feel this is an important reason not to move forward with these projects.
2. When Farm Land goes from Agriculture to commercial the property tax is significantly increased. This sounds good to the taxing districts, but it is bad for the taxpayer. When the project is finished 5 to 25 years unless the subsidies are removed (which cause an immediate end), the property tax will revert to the lower Tax rate of Agriculture. This means taxing districts who spend whatever money they have each year, will be short and feel forced to raise our property taxes to make up the loss. The property owners like the money they are bringing in at the expense of everyone else. The vote to table was Democrats NO, and Republican who have the majority YES.

By Steve Balich 815-557-7196