By Kevin Hendricks, The Paper.
Two battery farms planned for the mesa west of Rio Rancho could pump about $560,000 a year into Sandoval County and its five school districts, with Rio Rancho and Jemez Valley schools getting the biggest charge.
County commissioners voted Sept. 23 to begin the process of issuing up to $510 million in industrial revenue bonds for Exus Renewables North America’s Encino Storage and TAG II Storage projects. The resolutions don’t issue any bonds. A final ordinance could come back around Nov. 11, county financial adviser Rob Burpo told commissioners.
Under an industrial revenue bond, the county holds title to a project and leases it back to the company. The company skips property taxes and gets a gross receipts tax break on equipment. In exchange, Exus would pay $2,800 per megawatt each year for the first five years, rising 5% every five years after that.
Exus repays the bonds, not taxpayers. The company also covers the county’s legal and advisory costs even if the deal never closes, according to the resolutions.
State law sends 57.57% of those payments to the county and 42.43% to schools. Half of the school share goes to the district where a project sits, 40% is split by district acreage and 10% by enrollment.
The 110-megawatt Encino project sits inside Exus’ existing 2019 solar farm off Encino Road, in the Jemez Valley district. Because that land already sits under a bond deal, the county gives up nothing in current property taxes. Jemez Valley would collect about 62% of the school share from Encino.
The 90-megawatt TAG II project, on 60th Street across from Exus’ TAG solar farm, sits entirely in the Rio Rancho district. It would cost the county about $434 a year in existing property taxes while generating $252,000 a year. Burpo called that a favorable trade.
BY THE NUMBERS
- $280 million: maximum Encino Storage bond
- $230 million: maximum TAG II Storage bond
- $560,000: combined yearly payments to the county and schools in years 1-5
- $19 million: combined payments over 30 years
- $57,200: Rio Rancho Public Schools’ yearly share from TAG II in years 1-5
- $434: yearly property taxes the county gives up on the TAG II land