The Benefits
The presented scenario also has the potential to lower tax rates across the board because the larger burden essentially shifts to them because their value is so large.
From info collected from Menard County Chief Tax Appraiser Kayla Wagner, RPA, RTA
Utilities like BESS, power lines, gas lines… they are all assigned a value for taxing purposes, just like your home or property is, except utility project values are determined by the state’s Public Utility Commission (PUC), not by our county appraisal district.
Just like your property taxes are based on property values, such is a BESS property.
Kayla, Menard County’s chief tax appraiser, did her thing and suggested a conservative estimated value for the proposed Menard BESS in $90 million range. It ultimately depends on the final size of the project, predicted at 100MW to 200MW, and her estimation figured 100MW, the lower end. She used the 2025 tax rates. It is important to remember that each of the county’s taxing entities— County, hospital district, school district and both water districts are the biggies— all have different rates, and those rates tend to change annually.
If the taxable value of the BESS is $90,000,000.00, and the county granted them a 10% abatement here’s what each taxing entity stands to receive in revenue per year:
County: $609,565.50
Hospital District: $461,088.00
MISD: $596,340.00
Water Control & Improvement District (WCID): $95,868.00
Underground Water District (UWD): $57,663.00
These amounts are PER YEAR, of course depending on final property value and the current tax rate. Kayla figured these using the low end of potential site factors. School taxes and hospital taxes are not eligible for abatement, so no matter what they will get the full amount.
I feel like I don’t even have to say anything about this potential. The very unlikely risk of BESS incident outside of the city limits compared to our districts having the ability to function with a little more leeway has been a no-brainer for people who are genuinely interested in learning about this.
The A Word
A tax abatement is a tax break. Counties/cities/municipalities all over use tax abatements to attract business and utilities like these for their sales and property tax payment potential. I personally do not yet know if RES will request an abatement on this project, but I assume they will. Abatement sounds like the taxing entities are getting screwed but read above for some numbers.
Property Values
I spoke directly to the Concho County Tax Appraiser who has quoted her county’s land values have not experienced any decrease even amongst the wind farms.
Think about that—land in the shadows of 127 wind turbines has not decreased in value. Surely, we can deduce that a comparably insignificant BESS installation placed on .00001111111111 percent of Menard County’s total acreage will not negatively affect land values here.
Home Insurance
I don’t have permission to quote yet so I will not name names, but a local insurance agent I reached out to told me that none of the carriers they currently use ask anything about a home or property being near a BESS (or substation, or things like that) facility. Your home insurance should not increase due to proximity of a storage facility. And if it does, use my guy because his carriers do not count it as a threat and he can hook you up.