The development of wind farms has been a popular recent conversation piece in Jack County, and conflict reached a zenith this summer when the push to grant French-owned Lasso Wind a tax reduction for a wind farm development was forced to a standstill. 

The most important developments returned in July, when area residents campaigned against tax breaks for new wind farms. This was followed by the July 12 meeting where the Jack County commissioners postponed a vote to grant Lasso Wind a tax reduction through the declaration of a “reinvestment zone,” and many concerned residents and public figures announcing their anti-wind-farm stances. 

Jack County is in north central Texas with a population of about 9,000.

Gary Oliver, the Jack County commissioner who forced a postponement of the vote on Lasso’s abatement by walking out of the July 12 public hearing, received support from several residents. North Texas Heritage Association member Byron Barton described the public hearing as “tense, with emotions running high on both sides of the room.”

“Anti-wind advocates were aware of the intentions of the judge and his appointee commissioner, and spoke at length on opposition to their agenda item,” Barton told Lone Star Standard. “Most opposition was directed at the future impact of wind development on property values, and the fact that the vote was being taken with an unelected commissioner holding the deciding vote.”

In an interview with Nortex Times, Oliver’s primary concern also involved the unelected commissioner’s weight in the decision. That commissioner, Oliver said, had been vocally in favor of the wind farm abatements in the past. 

According to a recent survey of Jack County voters conducted by Anderson Williams Research, 58% of Jack County residents oppose building any new wind farms, whereas only 29% support construction. David Garin, another Jack County resident who’s been closely following the wind farm developments, told Lone Star Standard that Oliver “clearly was representing the will of Jack County landowners and residents” when he broke quorum at the July 12 meeting. 

There are four commissioner precincts in Jack County. Two of the commissioners had to abstain from voting regarding the tax abatements due to having land signed up for wind turbine installment. This left only Oliver, the unelected commissioner, and the judge who appointed him to vote. With the odds stacked in favor of a yes-vote from the start, Garin said walking out of the hearing “was the only action to allow the broader constituents and stakeholders of Jack County to ultimately be heard.”

“If all of the commissioners and judge were voting in a way that actually represented the consensus of their precinct landowners rather than the will of a select few this would not have been necessary,” Garin added.

In a statement, Commissioner Oliver asserted “I am not going to be a pawn in this action. Voters are not speaking loud enough on this issue… I’m leaving so there will not be a quorum.”

According to Barton and other eyewitness accounts, Oliver exited the room to a standing ovation, further punctuating the public’s majority disapproval of the abatements. George Clay, who attended the hearing, observed that “the judge let two hours of testimony be heard and put his own people in to talk, who took another hour and then said it's time to vote, and that's when Commissioner Oliver stood up and said he's not going to hang around and allow a vote for something with the potential for a long standing effect on Jack County, with an unelected commissioner.”

The judge, Clay said, was “red-faced mad” when constituents applauded Oliver’s exit. 

The only Jack County residents appearing to support more tax abatements, Barton stated, are landowners who will enjoy a profit from having turbines on their land. 

When it comes to tax abatements, 68% of Jack County residents oppose offering tax breaks to wind farms, and only 23% support the abatements, according to Anderson Williams. When informed that the parent company of Lasso Wind is a foreign-owned entity, opposition to issuing the tax breaks shot up to more than 76%.

"What it boils down to is that anybody who has the capability of profiting financially from the wind farms are in support of an abatement,” Oliver said in the Nortex Times report.

Garin urges the county to allow a referendum vote for residents to decide whether they want to provide tax abatements for wind estates, calling this the “best and most democratic way to gauge the position of Jack County constituents on such a highly impactful and divisive issue.”

“This allows the constituents of those precincts represented by conflicted commissioners Terry Ward and Henry Birdwell Jr., as well as the judge’s self-appointed commissioner, to actually be heard and represented,” Garin said. “[...] The people have spoken loud and clear through these polling results that only Commissioner Oliver appears to be currently representing the will of the people.”

Wind farms, he continued, are not the only opportunity to generate additional tax revenue for the county, and are “truly the most onerous and potentially destructive” options. Garin said he offered to form an economic development council to seek sound business development for the county to improve its deaf base but his offer was met with silence. 

“We can argue whether or not that economic development of any kind benefits a greater good but, let’s stop with the nonsensical argument that [a wind turbine] does not impact people’s individual property,” Garin said. 

The impacts on property values raise the highest alarm. Texas land rights organization TLOW reports that, based on independent studies, the property values decrease by 25% to 40% or more in areas within view of wind or solar farms. 

According to TLOW, Texas real estate brokers have reported that within the last six months they seen clients decide not to buy land because of the potential of wind turbines being built in proximity to the property. Several brokers who sell property in Brown County and the surrounding area, including Comanche and Mills counties, state that eight of 10 buyers will not even look at a property if there are wind turbines in view.

Keep the Country reports that if the Lasso Wind receives tax breaks and is granted their business proposal, it will result in $4.5 million lost every year for a total of 30 years, requiring a 45% tax rate increase for all county landowners to cover costs. Further, they assert that landowners supporting wind farm tax abatements only comprise .5% of annual taxes paid to Jack County and 2.2% of the county’s land value.

Barton observed that participants at the July 12 meeting were surprised to see that the judge had misread constituents’ wishes so badly. 

“There are a lot of unsubstantiated assumptions being offered to account for this,” he said.