Municipal Solar Financing: The Biggest Revolution that You’ve Never Heard Of

[irishbobcat]

The bottom line is still workers must be protected and be the main concern before management.

The same goes for the new renewable energy programs, they must be protected and given a chance to get off the ground and prosper like the workers who became middle class citizens.

[Towntalk]

The Democrats were in office when we got the chop.

Also it was a NON-UNION shop that came to the rescue, and the owners were better than the owners of the union shop and treated their workers with dignity.

They also became life long friends.

[irishbobcat]

You made my point. When Government was more concerned about unions and workers instead of the owners of the companies we had a middle class where people were living in the most part comfortable conditions.

[Towntalk]

For 22 years I was a member of SEIU and what did they do for us when the company laid our whole department off an brought in non-union workers?

NOTHING!

We lost everything!

They didn't lift so much as a single finger to help any of us, not one!

And what did the other unions in the company do to help?

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING EVEN WHEN WE STOOD BY THEM WHEN THEY WENT ON STRIKE!

And don't preach about the local teachers union given the shameful conditions in our schools here in Youngstown! At one time the Youngstown Public School ranked high in the state but where is it today? Among the lowest!

[irishbobcat]

Maybe if Americans were not throwing away millions of dollars each day  for
Blu-Ray, ipods, MP3 players, Plasma large screen Tv's, and cell phones, we might be able to afford to build free power by plugging into the sun.....

And, when is the only time in American History has there been a middle class in America? When unions were strong and government supported unions between
1933 and 1980? Before then and with the arrival of Mr. Reagan, the unions have been beaten down and the elite rich returned to this country to make millions and billions at the expense of the working and middle class.

Currently, union levels in this country are at 1920 levels. So who is bleeding this country dry? The elite rich who want to soak up as much profit as possible by moving their companies and factories overseas.

Reagan, Newt, George 41 and George W have ruined this country. Not the unions.

And only when we return to manufacturing renewable energy jobs in this country will a middle class re-emerge. A middle class that has a right to single-payer
health insurance as well.

It is time for a New New Deal. It's time for people like the Green Party to stand up for Middle America, not like the Democrats and Republicans who merely stand up for the lobbyists who wine and dine them to death, and our death.

Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party

[Towntalk]

Why is it so totally impossable for you to undestand the economics of the valley? 

I'm not disputing you about modern technology, but I am disputing you about the fact that this county can't afford to be throwing millions of dollars that we don't have at the projects you advocate for.

Of course there is a way that would help, and that is if all the people that lived off the tax payers lo these many years were to have their benefits cut as deeply as those in the private sector. As it is, struggling taxpayers are being forced to shell out in order to give the public sector folks overly generous benefits even as their own are being taken away from them.

Examples of unions bleeding the tax payers dry in the valley:

OEA
NEA
SEIU
AFSCME

[irishbobcat]

Cities around the US are starting to embrace solar power in some pretty interesting ways.  Last week Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled an ambitious long-range plan for producing enough solar power to meet one-tenth of the city's energy needs by 2020.  Villaraigosa is launching this initiative to help wean the city's Department of Water and Power off of fossil fuels that contribute to global warming.

In the plan, the largest share of solar power, 500 megawatts, would come from generating facilities built by private-sector companies in the Mojave Desert.  An additional 380 megawatts would be achieved through smaller programs, including one that would help low-income residents add solar panels to their homes and another that would allow DWP customers to purchase shares of city-owned solar plants.

Read the full Los Angeles Times feature on the Mayor's solar plan.

Further North in California the hyper-progressive City of San Francisco launched a strong solar incentive program this summer. The realized that fewer than 1000 rooftops in the city had solar panels and they needed to drive positive action to embrace solar power.  The city's Solar Energy Incentive Program provides rebates to home- and business owners who install solar panels on their buildings. Individuals can receive up to $6,000; businesses can be granted $10,000. They also launched a one-year pilot program to provide funding for solar installations at low-income housing and buildings owned by nonprofits. According to Grist.org, San Francisco currently generates less than 5 megawatts of power from 770 solar-powered rooftops, but hopes to boost that to 55 mw from 15,000 rooftops within the next decade.  Learn more about the San Francisco program here.

Right across the Bay, The City of Berkeley is offering innovative loans to citizens to fund home solar installations. The program gives city-backed loans to property owners who install rooftop solar-power systems. The loans, which are likely to total up to $22,000 apiece, would be paid off over 20 years as part of the owners' property-tax bills.  Learn more about the Berkeley program here.

And just to prove that solar isn't only a "West Coast Thing" the City of Chicago has created a very impressive program called the Chicago Solar Partnership. The Chicago Solar Partnership (CSP) is a public-private consortium managed by the Illinois Solar Energy Association (ISEA), to advance the development of the solar energy industry in the Chicago metropolitan area. The website is excellent and provides great information on different solar system options, costs, and rebates. The State of Illinois provides rebates for up to 30% of the solar installation with a maximum rebate of $10,000. Not too shabby!

[Towntalk]

California property tax v. Ohio property tax

A home in California that would sell for $75,000 to $100,000 in the Mahoning Valley sells for over a million in California. Think what the property tax is for that home owner. Tack on utility bills which are much higher in California as well as the overall cost of living, and your average home owner is left with precious little discressionary income.

I'm not going to debate California's tax woes here, but simply point out that until the costs involved in adopting many of California's eco policies decreases, our valley is in no position to spend millions of dollars it doesn't have on projects it can't afford.

For crying out loud, the latest report from the Mahoning County Commissioners is gloomy at best, and the City, as well as the townships aren't far behind.

In case you haven't heard yet, the Senior Citizens have been informed that there will be no increase in their Social Security income for the next two years, and the valley is bleeding jobs at an alarmong rate which translates into less income to the cities and townships. So where will the money come from?

Perhaps you should consider a run for County Commissioner.

[irishbobcat]

California is already a high income tax rate state. Their income tax is very volatile because the bulk of it is collected from a small number of high income individuals. When their income goes down, in essence, the entire state feels it. This is also because the personal income tax is about 50% of our general fund revenues. California law is designed such that, for example, a family of 4, no income tax would be owed until their income was over $44,000. I've got more information on this volatility in a 2007 report.

There are flaws with many of the tax deductions, credit and exclusions in the personal income tax. For example, CA follows federal law in allowing mortgage interest to be deducted on a primary and second residence and on up to $1.1 million of debt. This tax break is worth more to high income individuals. Why is the state subsidizing home purchases beyond the median home price and on a second home as well? This rule is provides too generous of a benefit to high income/wealthy individuals. It should be cut back and perhaps even converted to a tax credit to eliminate its skew to higher income individuals.

Raising the rate rather than fixing the base just leaves Califorrnia labeled as a high tax state, gives high income individuals pause to question if they should live elsewhere, makes tax planning more attractive and continues to leave the base problems for another day.

What is needed:

Increase tax enforcement efforts to help generate about 1.5 billion.

It is always good to be sure the tax gap (amount of tax owed, but not collected) be kept to a minimum. Rather than increasing a tax or creating a new tax, see about collecting more of the taxes already on the books.

Given the push to make changes that lead to closing the $15 billion shortfall, math won out over making tax reforms that would help their economic, societal and environmental goals. But, it is likely just a start to further budget debates.  We'll see what other tax increases are proposed and which, if any, of the ones from July 8 are continued.

[Towntalk]

Dennis:

I don't know if you bother to read any of the California papers but that state is billions and billions of dollars in debt ... so far in fact that not only are they selling their state prisons but a number of California communities are selling their parking meters and pulic parking lots to private companies just to pay off some of their debt.

You grandize that state, then please explain why they are losing population as Californians head off for other states.

Explain why California has the nations highest tax rate yet is over their heads in debt.

[Rick Rowlands]

Participants would get slammed twice on their tax bill.  First for the repayment of the installation fees, and second when the house is reassessed at a higher value because of the addition of the solar panels.   Thsi may make sense in CA, where I've seen that power is around 30 cents a KWH, but not here in Ohio where its 6 cents per KWH.

There is only one way to make solar "take off", and that is to get the price of a solar power system down to the point where homeowners can invest in it without government subsidy.  With government subsidies I don't see that there will ever be a downward pressure on prices as its not a free market.

[irishbobcat]

Municipal Solar Financing: The Biggest Revolution that You've Never Heard Of

Municipal Solar Financing: The Biggest Revolution that You've Never Heard Of
Written by Ariel Schwartz
Published on May 15th, 2009
1 Comment
Posted in Editor's Choice, Energy, Liberal, Policy, U.S.


The whole thing is happening without flashy ad campaigns, so it's not surprising if you've never heard of municipal solar financing. But the financing program, also known as property tax financing, is a veritable underground solar revolution.

It all started in Berkeley, CA with the Berkeley FIRST Program, which allows homeowners to pay for solar panels through property tax bills over a 20 year period. The bills carry a fixed interest rate and stay with the house, so there's no need to worry about paying for panels on a house you don't live in anymore. The Berkeley program was so popular that California passed the AB811 bill to let any interested city in the state launch a similar program.

Since the passing of AB811, Palm Desert, San Diego, San Francisco, and Sonoma County have decided to launch their own municipal solar financing programs. And AB811 has been such a hit overall that Boulder, CO, Annapolis, MD, and the entire state of Louisiana have come on board with property tax financing programs.  Rest assured that similar financing initiatives will come to your state soon–the Berkeley program launched less than a year ago, and we can only imagine how far the movement will spread in another year.

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When will it finally come to Ohio?

Dennis Spisak

Mahoning Vallley Green Party

Ohio Green Party

www.ohiogreens.org

www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/