WC Texas News

A group representing concerned Brown County residents recently presented the county's commissioners court with signatures of those opposed to a Chapter 312 tax abatement application for the 3,000-acre Radian Solar project.

The Brown County Commissioners Court will vote May 10 whether to approve a tax abatement for the project. To help inform their decision, TLOW hired Texas Petition Strategies out of Buda, Texas, to gather public opinion about solar and wind tax abatements for the court.

"As of this morning (May 3), I think 100 more signatures were added," Jeff Tucker, a TLOW member, told WC Texas News when asked how many signatures the petition has gathered. "We have close to 1,800 verified signatures, as of today (May 3)."

During the April 26 regular meeting, Tucker told the Brown County Commissioners Court that the petition had 1,668 verified signatures opposing solar and wind tax abatements from the county. Tucker further clarified that of the total verified signatures, 1,199 were registered voters and 469 were not registered to vote.

"What we are saying is that the data shows an overwhelming amount of people are against the abatement and the aggregate data shows that the people in the county do not want it to happen," Tucker added. "I'd love to see a county-wide vote on the issue and let the people of the county decide."

At a previous April 14 commissioners court special meeting, Brown County land owners urged the commissioners to consider how the Radian Solar tax abatement proposal would affect all of the citizens of Brown County and not only the 12 private landowners leasing their land for the solar farm project. Tucker asked commissioners to consider the impacts on land, the fiscal feasibility of the proposal, and that other tax abatement proposals are following the Radian Solar project. 

"Once you open this box, it's going to be very hard to close it," Tucker said at the meeting.

TLOW is a coalition of Brown and Coleman County residents, landowners, business owners opposed to what they consider the negative effects of wind and solar energy. It seeks to educate residents on the potential impacts of renewable energy projects on the community. TLOW believes that the renewable energy projects will negatively affect the county's property values, property taxes, marketability of the area, economic growth, jobs and the citizens' way of life.

TLOW encourages residents opposed to the solar property tax abatement to contact the commissioners.

Texas Petition Strategies verified signatures through Brown County voting rolls and the Brown County Central Appraisal District.