Howard Kalet

To Chairman Michael Vose and the Members the Committee, My name is Howard Kalet and I am Co Chair of the Rye Energy Committee, I am opposed to HB 1002 and recommend that the bill is Inexpedient to Legislate. I take exception to HB 1002 for numerous reasons. First of all the property tax exemption has been in place for many years and financial decisions have been made long ago considering the benefits of the tax exemption. The Rye tax database is set up to handle these exemptions and the process works well. Secondly, this exemption will increase costs of any projects being considered. I want to encourage investment in our community. Rye recently installed 2 solar projects on public buildings, and I want to encourage private developers to do the same. Let us not forget that solar and storage investments decrease the ever increasing, need for costly investments in transmission lines. No grandfathering the tax exemption sets a bad example for past investors and would raise concerns about future projects. Again, we want to encourage investment, not discourage in my community. I simply do not understand why this bill would be considered and again discourage passage. Howard Kalet Co Chair Rye Energy Committee