On Tuesday Mayor Mike Navarre participated in a teleconference with the Municipal Advisory Gas Project Review Board which he said supplied clarity for going forward in the project.
Navarre: “It was good in that they want to keep the advisory group together, they’ve shown an indication that they want to advance the gas line and they’re going to try and put some other information together about PILT to see what they think makes sense and they we’re going to discuss it. The PILT is payment in lieu of taxes, it’s something that would provide for a more even tax burden on the project over the life of the project, whereas at the norm sometimes you start high and then drop down and there can be a lot of issues with evaluation because obviously the companies what the evaluations to be low and the municipalities want it to be high.”
He said that there have been two more meetings tenatively scheduled before March to review what the administration offers as a PILT plan.
Navarre said the details are still being worked out but the administration plans to keep the advisory board involved in input on those details.