Solar Subsidies Are Evil

Subsidies are enabling international companies to extract money from U.S. and Texas tax payers while destroying farm land. Austin American-Statesman, Section E

ELGIN — Although barely 25 miles from one of the country’s fastest growing cities, much of the land hugging this Austin bedroom community remains empty prairie. 

Small farmhouses dot the dark soil fields that unroll into the horizon. Soon, though, if all goes according to plan, a Canadian company will begin installing a vast array of solar panels across 1,000 acres just a few miles outside of town.

But only under one condition: that it receives a multi-million-dollar tax break from the local school district.

Property taxes represent the biggest operating expense for solar projects. So without the giant reduction of its tax bill, Recurrent Energy warned, its executives would be forced “to look to maximize their investment by building in California.” 

In exchange for the tax break, the company has promised to create exactly one full-time job. 

The merits of Texas’s Chapter 313 tax breaks have been debated since the program was created two decades ago.
The number of companies seeking the property tax breaks more than doubled between 2016 and 2018, with the total projected cost of the program projected to hit $1.1 billion a year by 2024.

Because Chapter 313 tax breaks come out of the money collected by schools, the soaring growth comes at a sensitive time for legislators who, after years of false starts, have pledged to put billions more dollars into public education. “Here we are looking for more money for schools while we’re leaking $1 billion a year out the back end,” said Dick Lavine, an analyst for the Center for Public Policy Priorities.

The comptroller’s office recently made qualifying for the 313 program even easier, saying an applicant simply had to assert it required the tax break for the project to be financially viable. Most solar applicants include the wording. While Energie Kontor found Pecos County “a desirable location” for a solar installation, the company wrote in its December 2018 application to the Fort Stockton school district for a tax break, it “would not be able to finance and construct its project without the property tax incentives.”

Thus it is clear that the Fort Stockton school district, which gave tax breaks for Georgetown's Buckthorn solar farm, continues to reward solar companies, even though they provide minimal jobs. The loss of tax revenue doesn't hurt the school district, because the State makes up the lost revenue by taxing all the State's residents. What a deal!

This is a classic example of wealth transfer from Texas tax payers to executives and shareholders of international corporations!!