County to use wind money for jail project

By Lee Bonorden (Contact) | Austin Daily Herald

Published Wednesday, September 3, 2008

The Mower County Board of Commissioners will use its share of wind energy profits for the proposed new jail and justice center project.

Currently, the wind output taxes generate $100,000 in revenues for the county.

That figure is expected to grow to between $600,000 and $700,000 in the next few years.

The money will be used to buy down the cost of bonding for the new jail and justice center project.

When the bonding period ends, the money would be dedicated to related capital improvement projects.

The Mower County Commissioners affirmed their decision with a resolution unanimously approved at Tuesday afternoon’s meeting.

“Everyone knows we’re going to be bonding for the new jail and justice center project,” said Ray Tucker, 2nd District county commissioner. “We want to use the wind output taxes the county will receive, along with other county reserves, to offset the impact on property taxes.”

“After the lifetime of the bonds, the wind output taxes will be dedicated to capital improvement projects.”

The new jail and justice center project is expected to cost between $30- and $32-million.

That, county officials hope, will pay for a new 128-bed jail and a justice center, including courtrooms and court administration spaces, county attorney and correctional services.

The two-story facilities will be constructed on two blocks of downtown city property being acquired by the city of Austin.

More details of the schematic design of the facilities and project cost estimates will be revealed at a public meeting, starting at 7 p.m. Thursday in the commissioners’ meeting room at the government center/courthouse in downtown Austin.

The county collected $100,000 in wind output taxes in 2007 and budgeted another $100,000 in wind output tax revenues for 2008.

“It looks like we will be collecting more than $400,000 this year in wind energy projects for the county,” Tucker said. “We expect those revenues to grow to $600,000 to $700,000 in the next few years when all the other wind energy farms are up and running.”

Tucker, who is chairman of the county board’s finance committee, made the motion to adopt the resolution.

David Hillier, 3rd District county commissioner, seconded the motion.

Richard P. Cummings, 1st District county commissioner and board chairman, asked if the county officials could safely anticipate what the wind output revenues will be each year to accurately budget the amount to buy down the cost of bonding for the new jail and justice center facilities.

“We will always be a year behind on our projections and have to budget year to year based on the previous year’s revenues,” Tucker said.

“And,” added county coordinator Craig Oscarson, “they will be rough estimates only. Anything can happen.”

The five county commissioners gave the resolution their unanimous approval.