Carnahan Wind Farm Dodging Taxes

Those lovely Carnahan's are at it again...

We recently examined how Tom Carnahan’s Wind Capital Group was developing land in conflict with the mineral rights of the Osage Nation Indian Tribe in Oklahoma, but now the company is refusing to pay the proper amount of property taxes to DeKalb County for their wind farm. In fact, they are demanding that their bill be cut in half.

Touted as an innovation when it began, Lost Creek wind farm and its owners, Wind Capital Group, have entered into a legal battle with DeKalb County, wanting to pay about half of its assessed property taxes.

Here’s the basic breakdown: The market value of each of these turbines clocks in at about a million bucks, but the county “assessed” the value of each turbine at only 32% of the market value, which comes out to $297,630.

Despite the generous 68% difference in “market” and “assessed” values, Carnahan’s Wind Capital Group is – incorrectly – claiming that the values of each turbine should be halved to $142,633.

How do we know the county’s assessed values are accurate?

Because not only was the formula used to assess the values of these turbines the same formula that was used on other Wind Capital wind farms in adjacent and nearby counties, but the formula itself was created by an assessor who at the time was THE CEO OF WIND CAPITAL!!

The legal wrangling is troubling for county officials for several reasons, the main one being they assessed the towers using the same formula as other wind farms in Northwest Missouri, including Gentry, Nodaway and Atchison counties.

“The formula that has been used by other counties and which I used, is a formula that was developed by an assessor and the then-CEO of Wind Capital Group,” [County Assessor Ruth] Ross said.

Is that not slightly insulting? Just a little bit?

It gets better… The project was selected for Obama’s “100 Recovery Act Projects Changing America”… Joe Biden, during a stop in Missouri, heaped praise on both the innovation of the project and on Tom Carnahan for creating Wind Capital… and the company received $107 million in stimulus funds.

And now they’re trying to screw DeKalb County out of tax dollars that go to schools and law enforcement.

Backed by liberals, funded by liberals, ran by Missouri’s top liberals and supported by America’s most elite liberals… and they’re trying to cheat school children and police pensions out of millions of dollars.

But the media tells me only Republicans do these things…

They’ve lost an appeal to the DeKalb County Board of Equalization, and have now taken their appeal to the Missouri Tax Commission.

County officials around Missouri are worried: if Wind Capital wins their appeal to the state they could force new rulings on their other wind projects, demanding their tax liability be halved in those counties, as well.

It’s not hard to see why these projects have become one giant pain in the ass to DeKalb County.

“It’s kind of ironic that what was seen to be a kind of good taxpaying asset is almost becoming a liability,” State Rep. Glen Klippenstein, R-Maysville, said.

Looking back, some see the wind farms as the blessing that became a curse.

You know what energy operations generate abundant amounts of power and a large local tax revenue base? Oil companies.

Drill, baby, drill.

- B.H.

Comments

[Jodi Williams]

I think you have your facts wrong on this one. This is actually just another case of government changing the rules on businesses after they start operating. Assessor Ruth Ross is just trying to find ways to increase taxes on businesses. The DeKalb County Commissioners agreed to the tax rate before the wind farm was built.

Now Ross is trying to increase the tax rate after the fact. Nothing could be more antibusiness or hurt job growth. What businesses would want to come to DeKalb if they know they will just get their taxes raised after they open? If Ross wins, this will be a terrible thing for businesses in Missouri.

[John Smith]

This whole thing smells. Carnahan gets $100 million dollars from the Obama Administration in the form of a grant and then turns around and hosts a fundraiser in September at his house on Lindell for.... You guessed it! Obama! would really like to know how much of our $100 million went back to Obama from Carnahan.