A tax incentive package for a $177 million energy project is expected to be passed at the Greene County Industrial Development Agency’s next meeting Oct. 21.
A public hearing held for the Champlain Hudson Power Express project that will run through Greene County drew no comments or opposition Wednesday.
The package, which includes use, recording and mortgage tax exemptions and a Payment in Lieu of Taxes, as well as a community host fund for several county towns and villages, is expected to pass at the IDA’s Oct. 21 meeting, IDA Executive Director Rene Van Schaack said Wednesday.
The Champlain Hudson Power Express transmission line would transport renewable energy through buried power lines running from the Canadian border to New York City, traveling through Greene County and 16 other jurisdictions.
“This project involves an electrical transmission line that will carry between 1,000 and 1,200 megawatts, with final capacity to be determined, of DC, or direct current, electricity from the Canadian border running down to New York City,” VanSchaack said to open the meeting.
The transmission line will pass through several local towns and villages including Athens, Catskill, Coxsackie and New Baltimore, and a total distance of 333 miles from Canada to New York City, according to the IDA Statement of Findings.
“In Greene County, this project will run down the CSX right-of-way primarily for the entire length, with the exception of one small area in Catskill where the project will come out of the public right-of-way onto local roads under the Catskill Creek and back out to the right-of-way,” VanSchaack said at the public hearing held on Zoom. “It will proceed south until Smith’s Landing, where the line will come off the railroad right-of-way and go back into the Hudson River at the Lehigh Cement Plant, where the last mile of the line will be under the river through Greene County.”
The incentive package includes tax exemptions, a Payment in Lieu of Taxes, or PILOT, and a community benefit fund.
“The IDA is proposing to do a sales and use tax, as well as a mortgage tax, along with a 30-year PILOT on the project,” VanSchaack said. “In addition to the PILOT, other requirements that have been negotiated between the IDA and TDI include a community benefit fund, which will be funded to the towns of New Baltimore, Coxsackie, Athens and Catskill, and the villages of Coxsackie and Catskill. That fund will run for 30 years concurrent with the PILOT.”
Under the incentive package, the company would be exempt on sales and use tax related to construction of the project.
“Based on a current projected budget of $177,677,620 and an 8% sales tax rate, the exemption is projected to be valued at $14,214,210,” according to the IDA’s Statement of Findings.
The mortgage recording tax exemption would save the company $2,220,970, according to the Statement of Findings.
The community benefit fund, awarded to the towns and villages, is designed to offset the economic impact on those communities.
Because a power transmission line will not have the long-term economic impacts of a traditional business, such as generating new jobs, the community benefit package aims to make up for that.
“The intent of these funds is to help local communities work with the IDA to promote future economic development, given the findings of the IDA that the TDI project will not have future indirect or direct or even induced secondary economic impacts in the community,” VanSchaack said Wednesday.
TDI will also pay $2 million, in two payments, to the IDA’s Business Fund Development account, to be used for future development of business parks in the county, VanSchaack said.
Most municipalities along the transmission route have passed tax incentive packages for the project, VanSchaack said last week.
The company expects to begin construction on the project within months.
“We expect to break ground later this year or early next year depending on the Public Service Commission approval process and some other things we are working on,” TDI Chief Financial Officer Todd Singer said Wednesday. “The ultimate thing we are trying to do is to become operational, which we are expecting by the end of 2025.”
The public comment period on the incentive package remains open until Tuesday.
“The next step is we will leave the comment period open for one more week,” he said. “Any comments we would need by close of business Tuesday, Oct. 19. After that, the IDA intends at its Oct. 21 meeting to advance the project by the passage of an inducement resolution.”
Anyone wishing to comment can submit a letter or email to rene@greeneida.com, which will be considered formal written comment, VanSchaack said.
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