Powering Better Schools

It is common knowledge that wind farms provide significant tax benefits to local communities, but how do those dollars find their way to local school districts?

You don't need to look farther than neighboring Gratiot County to see these benefits in action. In 2020 alone, the county's wind farms paid nearly $4.7 million in education-related property taxes. Since 2012, the total amount of new education funding generated by wind farms in Gratiot County has exceeded $30 million.

To understand where these dollars go, it is important to remember how the different parts of a wind farm are taxed. A wind farm is made up of several different components. The turbines themselves are taxed as a special class of industrial personal property. That means they pay all fixed and voted millages, including sinking funds, but are exempt from 18 mills of the school operating levy (similar to agricultural land).

The parts of a wind farm that transmit the power after it is generated (collection lines, transmission lines, project substation, etc.) are taxed as utility personal property. These components pay all of the same fixed and voted millages that wind turbines pay, but also pay the school operating levy and the State Education Tax.

Over the past decade, nine Gratiot County local and intermediate school districts have seen substantial new revenue from wind development in the county:

• $5 million in revenue to school operating millages
• $1.5 million paid into sinking funds
• $8.8 million in school debt/bond payments
• Over $13 million in new revenue to Regional Education Service Districts (RESDs)
• $1.7 million in State Education Tax payments (distributed back locally through State Aid Fund) (Source: https://ggdi.gratiot.orgwind-alternative- energy)

The numbers don't lie: wind energy is powering better schools across Michigan today and Montcalm County could be the next community to see these same benefits. Montcalm Wind would generate over $14 million in new education revenue over its lifetime (conservative estimate), and that is before counting taxes from utility personal property infrastructure.

“The wind farms, for our district, have been a wonderful contribution to the educational capabilities that we have here at Akron-Fairgrove.”

—Superintendent Diane Foster, Akron-Fairgrove Public School District, Tuscola County

“This is a lot bigger than a little funding here and there … I think sometimes we get lost a little bit in the weeds. When I listen to kids talk about this, they’re like, ‘Why haven’t we already done this, Mr. Chilman?’ That’s the questions I get, from the future.”

—Superintendent Bill Chillman, Beal City Public Schools, Isabella County

“Regardless of our feelings about wind turbines, from a financial perspective, they have been a benefit for the ISD to provide good services to our locals and to provide funding to our homes.”

—Superintendent Joe Murphy, Huron Intermediate School District