Excise Tax for Wind Energy Measure Passes in State House (audio)

Air Date:03/12/2010

By Eryn Clement
 
A measure that provides for certain tax refunds for new or expanded wind energy facilities passed in the State House. House bill 1060 essentially removes the cap for big wind energy projects so they are able to qualify for the contractors excise tax. Other legislation that was recently approved and is headed to the governor gives a 45 percent tax refund to projects costing ten million dollars or more.  The measure also gives a 55 percent tax refund to projects between forty million dollars and five hundred million dollars. Proponents of House bill 1060 believe this legislation is an incentive to promote renewable energy. Representative Bernie Hunhoff says there is a lot more work to be done regarding wind energy.
 
“I think it’s a good effort. It continues to really try to develop big wind energy projects. There’s still a lot of work to do. We still have a floor on smaller projects. We’re lifting the cap on projects but we still need to do a lot more for smaller projects. So I hope we can find support for that. And we need to find ways to promote community wind much more,” says Hunhoff.
 
The House bill passed with a 59 to 10 vote and now goes to the governor.

Member stations can download the audio file here.

Get the Flash Player to see this video.