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Lawmakers introduce bill to allow county vote and impose excise tax on commercial wind turbines
Summary
Representative Jeff Ehlers introduced RS 32471 proposing county preference elections on commercial wind projects exceeding 100 feet and an excise tax intended to funnel revenue into property tax relief; the proposal drew questions about scale and precedent and was introduced for full committee consideration.
Representative Jeff Ehlers told the House Revenue and Taxation Committee on Feb. 24, 2025, that RS 32471 would let voters in a county decide whether to allow commercial wind projects of more than 100 feet and, if voters decline, would impose an excise tax on turbines.
"This opens up we're gonna talk about windmills for a minute," Ehlers said. He described the measure as allowing "a preference election put to the voters of that county where that project will be located. If the voters do not approve of such project, then a... excise tax will be imposed on, those windmill turbines."
Ehlers told the committee the excise tax was chosen so it could apply where projects are sited on federal lands and said revenue from the excise tax would be directed into the state's property-tax relief mechanism established in earlier legislation. When asked about the size of the excise, Ehlers said, "It's a $25,000 per height, foot of height. So, your average windmill height, it'd be about a $2,500,000 excise tax per turbine."
Representative Shepherd asked whether the excise would benefit only the county where a project is located or the state as a whole. Ehlers replied that the funds would flow into the property tax relief mechanism rather than remaining solely with the host county because county-level relief would otherwise take many years to reach comparable relief levels.
Representative Birch (recorded in the transcript as "Representative Birch") said she supported holding a hearing on the idea but expressed concern about setting a precedent "of taxing the free market out of the ability to do things that are legal," and asked for more discussion of broader consequences.
Committee members moved to introduce RS 32471 for a hearing; the motion carried on a voice vote. The introduction will allow the committee to schedule a full hearing and gather additional information, including fiscal and legal analyses, before the committee takes further action.
The proposal would create a new local preference-election requirement for large commercial wind projects and an associated excise tax; specific tax calculation language and downstream distribution would be developed if the RS proceeds as introduced.
