While observers say some municipal officials are contemplating appeals, due to the high cost – – and potential risk – – of litigation, no decisions have yet been appealed.įor now, municipal officials are hoping the Legislature will resolve the issue. If a decision is appealed to the state Appeals Court, a ruling there could have statewide implications. According to Bump, the Appellate Tax Board now has 71 pending appeal cases related to tax exemptions for solar projects. While Appellate Tax Board rulings only apply to the particular cases under dispute, the decisions opened the door for additional appeals. The tax board’s rulings threw the state’s solar landscape into uncertainty. The town of Swansea ultimately negotiated a PILOT agreement with the solar developer.Ĭoncord town assessor Lane Partridge, past president of the Massachusetts Association of Assessing Officers, said the problem is that the law was written so long ago “that it doesn’t have anything to do with current technology and the current way we do things.” In one key case in 2016, the Appellate Tax Board ruled that a Swansea solar farm – which powered the owners’ nearby home but sold 98 percent of its energy to local bank branches –- was eligible for a property tax exemption. However, between 20, the state’s Appellate Tax Board ruled in several cases that the property tax exemption applies to both residential and commercial solar installations. The idea was to create a structure where solar producers could anticipate the size of future payments, while ensuring municipalities would not lose tax revenue. Others took advantage of a separate provision in state law that lets municipalities enter PILOT, or payment in lieu of taxes, agreements with solar generation facilities to make regular payments instead of taxes on solar energy installations. The intent was to help residents who wanted to install off-grid rooftop solar panels to power their homes.įor decades, the property tax exemption was used in primarily that way – – by residential homeowners to power their homes.Īs commercial solar farms began to be developed, some paid taxes. The issue is particularly important on the South Coast, in C entral Massachusetts and in Berkshire County, where many large solar farms are located.Ī law established in the mid-1970s created a property tax exemption for solar installations that are the primary power systems for a property. “ So the law needs to be updated to reflect the reality.” “I do not believe that the Legislature would have knowingly and deliberately put the large solar developers in a position of avoiding property taxes almost altogether,” Bump said. On Thursday, Auditor Suzanne Bump is releasing a report highlighting the confusion around existing laws and urging the Legislature to clarify the situation.
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