Delinquent First Wind $1.5 million tax bill lost in paper trail
Delinquent First Wind $1.5 million tax bill lost in paper trail
"Kent Smith, president of Makana Nui Associates, which is a partner with First Wind in the farm, said telephone calls and e-mails were flying among company officials Wednesday and Thursday to figure out what happened.
Here, according to Smith and Teruya, is how the tax bill got overlooked for three years:
Kaheawa pays all expenses through a state lease, but when the farm went into operation in 2007, the state didn't send the lease and permit papers to the county.
"We knew there was a wind farm there," said Teruya, but there was no paperwork to process.
Kaheawa wasn't getting bills, so it wasn't aware it was delinquent.
Earlier this year, a county tax staffer looked into it more closely, decided taxes were due and sent a bill to the last-known address of the listed owner, UPC Wind in Newton, Mass.
However, between 2007 and now, UPC's interest was renamed First Wind and the offices were moved to Boston.
The bill eventually was returned as undeliverable.
"The state and the county never assessed us and never forwarded any bills," said Smith. "They didn't find any way of contacting the local wind company."
But Teruya said: "It's not our place to go find anyone."
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Comment
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Comment by Allen Barrette on March 24, 2013 at 2:07pm
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As an American company doing business in America all companies are aware of tax liability, permit renewals quarterly income tax payments etc. This company is negligent and is now owing the state and tax payers for interest accrued and a big fat penalty for fraud, and also please leave the state of Maine now.
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Shame on First Wind. They must have know there should be a tax bill, and should have inquired. After all, the tax expense must be budgeted, and the unpaid and unbilled budgeted expense should have triggered an inquiry by First Wind that would have alerted the local tax authority.
Well, what did First Wind do with that extra money in their accounts? And what did the local taxing authority do when the "undeliverable" tax bill appeared in their mailbox?
Harry Roper Houlton/Danforth, Maine, USA
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Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
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(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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