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Calvert commissioners approve amended pilot for Cove Point LNG to protect school funding
Summary
The Board approved a first amendment to a pilot and tax‑credit agreement with Cove Point LNG and authorized the president to sign. Staff said the amendment helps restore a prior PILOT arrangement that may preserve local wealth calculations and reduce a roughly $22 million state aid cut to education; county and SDAT assessments and a court appeal remain outstanding.
The Calvert County Board of Commissioners on Sept. 10 approved a first amendment to the pilot and tax‑credit agreement with Cove Point LNG and authorized the president to sign the document on the board’s behalf.
Ashley Staples Reed, the county’s special projects program manager, told the board the pilot amendment is the recommended option to preserve the county’s wealth calculation and to help avert additional cuts in state education aid after the earlier pilot expired. Reed summarized recent assessments, saying SDAT assessed the facility at $4,285,158,050 and later increased that figure by about 9.35% to roughly $4.6 billion; the county has appealed and has a trial date set for October 2025.
Representatives from Cove Point and owner Berkshire Hathaway Energy attended. Danny Woods, vice president of LNG operations for Cove Point, highlighted the facility’s economic role and exports, saying, “We’ve actually delivered to over 30 different countries reducing air emissions, millions of tons of air emissions throughout the world.” George Janis, director of external affairs for Berkshire Hathaway Energy, also participated in the discussion.
Board members described urgency after the pilot expired and said the amendment is retroactive to fiscal year 2023. The President said the county will next ask the state to restore about $22 million in education funding the county said was lost when the pilot lapsed. “A pilot agreement is the best option in regards to saving our wealth formula and deferring continued cuts to state aid when it comes to education,” Reed said.
A commissioner moved to adopt the resolution and the first amendment to the pilot and tax‑credit agreement; the motion was seconded and carried by voice vote with no recorded dissent.
Next steps: staff will proceed with executing the amendment and pursue state action to recover prior state‑aid reductions; the county’s administrative appeal remains pending with a trial date in October 2025.
