Officials in Vermont towns along the Deerfield and Connecticut rivers are worrying about what would happen to local tax revenues if power dams are purchased by the state of Vermont.
The Valley News of West Lebanon, New Hampshire, reports (http://bit.ly/1VuvQnp ) that local officials in Hartford, Vermont, which shares the Wilder Dam with Lebanon, point to Vermont law as making the dams tax-exempt if the state owned them.
State officials recently formed a working group to study buying the dams.
The Hartford portion of the Wilder dam is assessed at $32.4 million, and is a big source of revenue for the town currently. Local officials would be looking to negotiate a payment in lieu of taxes from the state, the usual procedure in cities and towns with state-owned property.
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