KINGSTON – As of the close of 2022, Ulster County had approved 12 payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements that are anticipated to result in $91,103 in real property tax revenue forgone for 2023. That was a finding in a just-completed audit by County Comptroller March Gallagher.
The county has seen a significant increase in the deployment of solar installations with 107 megawatts deployed since 2000. Utility-scale facilities are required to submit a notice of intent to build and operate a solar energy system.
Gallagher’s audit found the financial incentives have differing rates.
“What we found was that the rates vary from about $609 per megawatt up to $3,750, depending upon the project,” she said. “And while those differences might be justifiable, we can’t actually as auditors tell taxpayers that because there is no backup documentation to these agreements that actually show how these rates were calculated.”
The audit also found that interest and penalties for late payments were not applied correctly or consistently.
The audit recommends that county adopt a standard PILOT rate per megawatt approach, maintain supporting documentation, and automate interest and penalty calculations.
The County Department of Finance agreed with the findings and will be implementing the recommendations.
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