10/21/2024“Great Falls This Week” is reported and written by Matt Hudson. Send your news and tips to [email protected] County revisits tax abatementsIn August, the Montana Department of Revenue contacted Cascade County and the city of Great Falls to clarify the property tax breaks that Calumet receives from both jurisdictions. The two entities passed tax abatements in 2022 for Calumet’s biodiesel plant, which is run by the spinoff company Montana Renewables. In return for its investment and expansion, Montana Renewables pays half of its owed property taxes for five years, followed by 60% in the sixth year, 70% in the seventh year and so on until it pays the full amount in the 10th year and beyond.The DOR needed to know, in dollar value, how much of the plant’s property was covered by the tax abatements, which is a benefit that can be applied to new and expanding industries.“An abatement can apply to hundreds or thousands of assets that make up a larger facility, and in this case the resolutions granting the abatement were not clear enough for the department to conclude which assets they had approved,” said Jason Slead, DOR spokesperson, in an email.Cascade County commissioners met on Oct. 15 for a special meeting to make that clarification and set the eligible amount at $430 million, which represents the entire Montana Renewables biodiesel plant. Commissioner Joe Briggs said that this was in keeping with county action on past tax abatements.“We have a checklist, and if the business qualifies, we grant the 50% tax abatement,” Briggs said. “We have never been in the business of picking winners and losers. We have never been in the business of capping an abatement amount.”Calumet was in the business of capping that amount, however. In its 2022 application for a tax abatement, Calumet said it would also be seeking a tax exemption for most of the Montana Renewables plant through the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. State law grants this exemption for “pollution control equipment.”Calumet’s application said that this left $50 million worth of the plant for a tax abatement. A copy of Calumet’s application provided by Cascade County appears identical to the application the city received, except it has pages missing that explain the $50 million request and the DEQ tax exemption.So far, the city has not revised its tax abatement, like the county did. The city approved $50 million for the tax benefit, based on the application. At the time, the city expected to miss out on $2.7 million in tax revenue over the life of the tax abatement.Now the Montana Renewables biodiesel plant is subject to three potential tax benefits: the city’s abatement on a $50 million portion of the plant is applied to property taxes owed to Great Falls, the county’s abatement on the entire $430 million plant that applies to taxes owed for county levies and the state pollution control exemption that’s still under appeal.The appeal happened after DEQ disagreed with Montana Renewables’ pollution control request and found that only 8% of the plant counts as pollution control equipment, which drastically reduces the tax exemption, according to The Electric. That ruling is waiting to be heard by the Montana Tax Appeal Board, and the result of that appeal will dictate the actual extent of the county’s tax benefit.When asked about the multiple tax incentives applied to the plant, Montana Renewables Communications Manager Lanni Klasner indicated that the benefits couldn’t be applied to the same assets.“To the extent that property qualifies as pollution control property, this property is ineligible for NEIC classification, and vice versa,” Klasner said via email.She also included a statement from Montana Renewables CEO Bruce Fleming that the tax benefits “do not overlap or double dip.”It will be up to the DOR to sort out the various tax benefits and calculate proceeds for each government jurisdiction. Slead, the DOR spokesperson, said that while a piece of tax-exempt property can’t get a tax abatement, the law doesn’t prevent Calumet from having multiple benefits within its plant.“Statute does not say that they cannot have both,” Slead said in an email.Calumet is also appealing its property valuation on the oil refinery side of the business and paid taxes in protest for 2023. This process prevents the city, county and school district from accessing millions of dollars in tax proceeds without the risk of paying back a portion after a settlement.In 2020, Calumet settled a previous three-year tax appeal and had its total bill reduced from $16.9 million to $11 million for those years.More from CalumetCalumet plans to more than double its biofuel production in the coming years with the help of a $1.44 billion federal loan announced Oct. 16.The expansion would make Montana Renewables, Calumet’s biofuels spinoff, one of the largest global producers of sustainable aviation fuel, according to a press release. Part of the expansion will be an effort to develop feedstock sources from area farms and ranches. Feedstocks used by Montana Renewables include tallow, distillers’ corn oil and canola oil.The $1.44 billion loan comes from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office. The Biden Administration aims to increase domestic production of sustainable aviation fuel to 35 billion gallons annually by 2050 and called the fuel type “increasingly vital” to meeting decarbonization goals.An initial part of the loan, $778 million, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to Calumet. “We would like to thank the DOE LPO team for its dedication and partnership during this process,” said Bruce Fleming, CEO of Montana Renewables, in the press release. “Furthermore, our commitment to expanding SAF supply benefits the local community, the state of Montana and the Pacific Northwest economic region. We are grateful for the steadfast support received from Great Falls, Cascade County, the state of Montana and congressional officials and authorities.”Calumet said the expansion should support 450 construction jobs and as many as 40 operational jobs at its peak.The biofuels process produces a lot of wastewater, and Montana Renewables is seeking approval from the EPA to inject the water underground at a site between Dupuer and Valier. In reaction to the loan and expansion announcement, Pondera County commissioners urged Montana Renewables to abandon the wastewater injection plan and fund water treatment on-site in Great Falls.“With the federal loan commitment in hand, Montana Renewables should abandon their irresponsible wastewater injection proposal, withdraw their permit application and focus their energy on building the facilities necessary to treat or recycle all their wastewater on-site,” the statement read in part.Photo Op Increased solar flare activity brought the northern lights to skies farther south than normal in recent weeks. This shot from Oct. 11 was taken in an eastern neighborhood of Great Falls.Calling all photographers: Submit a photo for Great Falls This Week to [email protected] Questions ForIt’s a busy time at Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art. The museum recently opened a new exhibition and is now on the hunt for a new executive director. Operations Manager Sara Johnson fielded this edition of 3 Questions For to get a rundown of everything that staff and volunteers have planned for the near future.Following the news of Executive Director Sarah Justice moving to Missoula, what is the process for naming the next director?The board is currently in the process of developing a hiring committee, to proceed with a national call for the job opening. Staff of The Square will be covering the day-to-day operations, and the board will help support the staff with development efforts. The team is strong and solid so the transition should be fluid and positive on all fronts. The Square is doing great.The work of Willem Volkersz looks colorful and unique. What can you tell us about his exhibition?The View From Here will capture the imagination of any viewer. Montana-based artist Willem Volkersz is a significant contemporary artist known for his lively neon and paint-by-number-style installations. Volkersz came to the United States from Holland in 1953, after the devastation of World War II, and brought with him a rich history that is reflected in his works of art. Volkersz has often said that he has an immigrant’s fascination with America, and as a teenager, he began hitchhiking and driving throughout the American West, camera in hand. The artworks featured in The View from Here were produced over the past 25 years and draw upon the artist’s eight decades of life experience. They touch upon his early life in Holland under Nazi occupation, his immigration to America and his current life in the Western United States. The artworks also suggest the ways these personal experiences and passions connect to wider social issues of enduring relevance for everyone.There’s always a lot going on at The Square. What else is in the works this fall?Our next big event is the Art of Christmas Open House and Artist Market, December 6-7. We’ll have an artist market with around 25 vendors, gallery tours, art activities for kids, Christmas lunch and a special visit from Santa on Saturday!We also have several Fall Art Workshops coming up, including a Clothed Figure Drawing workshop, Intro to Linocut Printmaking Workshop and a Felted Wool Snowman Ornament Workshop. Folks can see these and all our classes and workshops here.5 Things to Know in Great FallsThe city of Great Falls posted a list of addresses that have water service pipes of lead, galvanized or unknown material. The city will also send letters to those addresses and follow up in person with residents who haven’t responded to earlier notices. It’s all part of an effort to identify lead pipes for potential replacement as part of a new EPA standard to replace lead lines in a decade. If your address is on the list, you can get more information here about verifying your service line.Benefis Health System will add a residency program and welcome its first group of medical school graduates next summer. Dr. Treena Sturgeon is the residency associate program director. As Benefis noted in its blog post, local students from the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine could apply for the program once the first class graduates.The Great Falls Development Alliance released a quarterly index that provides a by-the-numbers look at the regional economy. There are dozens of data points, including the median house value in Great Falls ($227,600), the number of food and beverage establishments downtown (29) and the annual value of meat imported from Canada through Montana ports of entry ($2.244 billion). There’s much more on the post here.Increased costs of construction and materials have raised the price tags of two area developments, both heard by the Great Falls City Commission on Oct. 15. Discovery Meadows, a planned 252-unit apartment development on 52nd Street North, required an additional $59,000 based on “significant increases” in cost. The total of $303,746 covers the city’s obligation to pay half of the road, water and stormwater improvements. A sidewalk repair project around Carter Park was estimated to cost nearly $565,000 in January 2023. By spring 2024, the winning bid came in at $807,000 — an increase attributed to the production costs of concrete.Any homeowner with a single house on the lot now has the right to build an accessory dwelling unit (ADU), also known as a granny flat. It’s a small, secondary home on the same lot. There are some size limitations and other guidelines, which can be found in a city planning presentation here. The 2023 Montana Legislature passed this law, and while it’s the subject of an ongoing lawsuit, it is currently in effect, according to city staff.The post A closer look at Calumet’s tax benefits appeared first on Montana Free Press.