Massachusetts

Massachusetts

December 12, 1999 | By Keith Martin in Washington, DC

MASSACHUSETTS said a cogeneration facility whose contract to supply power to the local utility was bought out by the utility had a higher value for property tax purposes than the cogenerator claimed. The cogenerator argued that the power plant had a low value because it had to operate on a merchant basis. Assessors for the town of Montague, where the facility was located, said the cogenerator had to take into account the $9.9 million a year that it would receive in buyout payments from the utility through 2009. The Massachusetts appellate tax board agreed with the assessor in a ruling on November 1. The board said the buyout payments were an intangible that added to the facility’s value in the same way that government rent subsidies and accelerated depreciation add to value where the owner of an asset would qualify for them.