Sunday, February 11, 20067 — In a span of five years, Alcoa’s property taxes have fallen by almost 65 percent.
Declining property values have reduced revenues for Stanly County, the town of Badin and for the fire district.
County taxes in 2002, the year of curtailment of production at the plant, have fallen from $476,000 to $198,000. Badin’s tax revenue fell from $180,000 to $104,000 and the fire district revenues from $36,000 to $15,000.
In 2002 the property value of Alcoa was stated as $71 million, in 2006, the last year figures are available for, the value has been stated as almost $30 million.
Tommy Gibson, a spokesman for Alcoa, said the plant being idle due to the curtailment is one reason for the lower value of the plant.
Now that the impact of Alcoa is less on the county and town of Badin. Jobs, once nearly 1,000, have been cut to around 75. The county stands to lose economically besides the job loss.
Another reason is depreciation of equipment.
“There are sill portions of the plant like the anode baking operation that are more recent additions,” Gibson said.
Alcoa Power Generating Inc.’s (APGI) dams were built to provide low cost electricity for the smelting operations of their Badin Works Plant. Now the power is sold on the electric grid.
Projections of APGI’s hydroelectric operations value in the tens of millions for the four dams in the Yadkin-Pee Dee river basin. These hydroelectric projects; High Rock, Tuckertown, Narrows and Falls have a generating capacity of 209 megawatts (mg).
In a 2000 report on the economic evaluation of the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project, Jan C. Phillips’ conservative estimate of Alcoa’s annual net revenue for the four dams was more than $35 million.
Of that $35 to $40 million in revenue APGI nets only $8 million.
That would leave operating costs for the four hydroelectric plants around $32 million.
“Our operating costs bring the net revenues to $8 million,” Gene Ellis, licensing and property manager for APGI said.
“The rest of the gross revenues are taken up by depreciation and operating expenses.”
Gibson said the shutdown of the plant is difficult.
“We are gradually pulling out instead of closing the doors and shutting down immediately,” he said. “At least that is damping the blow some.”
Personal property tax revenues for the entire county in 2007 are projected to be $25 million, in gross revenues APGI brings in more that the county does.
Stanly County Board of Commissioners Tony Dennis said the county has some options but he is disappointed about the loss of revenue.
“The power was produced to provide jobs in Stanly County,” he said. “Now the power needs to be traded for jobs.”
Dennis said the town of Badin should be concerned about their tax base.
“Their fire department is dependent on taxes also,” he said. “Alcoa needs to step up to the plate and be good stewards.
“I just wish they would truly negotiate with us.”
Matt Irvin can be contacted at snaponline 26@yahoo. com
Local News
Alcoa’s taxes decrease dramatically since 2002
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