(Continued from Page 26) Already, the farms buy 71 percent ot their corn for grain and 100 percent of their corn for silage locally. Fiscally, the two counties in the study experi enced very different situations. “I expected the out comes to be much more similar, but we encountered a lot of differences between the two counties,” Roe said. “That’s good, because I think it makes this study much more .informative for other communi ties who can make use of this data.” The two biggest fiscal costs local governments can incur with new dairies are those involved with road improvements necessary for the heavy trucks traveling to and from the dairies and the effect new property tax income can have on school funding from the state, Roe said. “It can be a nightmare to understand how school funding works with the local property taxes,” Roe said. “If things aren’t set up properly, schools could lose up to a dollar in state funding for every dollar of new property taxes collected locally,” In these cases, all seven dairies entered into Tax Increment Financing (TIF) agreements to distribute the new tax dollars to specific governmental agen cies. In four of the seven agreements, part of the tax BBUBAKE ™ EFBIOe «^- | DAIRY FARMEQ|JpMENt| * For the BEST products with the best performance, you can always count on Mueller, Give us a call for more information - OUR FIVE LOCATIONS TO SERVE YOU - Manheim, Myerstown, Reading, Quarryville, and York Toll Free 866-665-3525 1048 North Penryn Road Manheim, PA 17545 ★ Cali Today For All Your New or Used Milk Tank And Refrigeration Equipment Needs! Ohio Study Charts A Ist Class Team Together For 35 Years! money was directed as “gifts” to local schools, which protects a school’s state funding. Most of the rest of the tax money is directed toward road con struction and maintenance. “We asked other agencies, such as the sheriffs offices, local health departments and emergency management agencies, if they incurred extra costs due to the new dairies, and they reported none,” Roe said. “Roads really are the biggest expense.” Roe and his team examined fiscal impacts over a 30-year period, the length of time often used for evaluating projects with long-term implications. In examining the best- and worst-case scenarios for a variety of fiscal costs and income, he estimated that the total fiscal impact over 30 years in Paulding County would amount to a gain of $170,700, while the total gain in Van Wert County would total $1,156 million. Reasons for the large difference between the two counties include: • Van Wert County was able to get a Community Development Block Grant from federal sources to fund $72,000 of road improvements for one dairy. • Because of the grant, Van Wert County in curred very little debt —just over $23,000 —to sup- (Turn to Page 29) VE ALWAYS BEEN GOOD Now we’re even better. REALLY GOOD products lave given Mueller an excel lent reputation in dairy cool ing and storage vessels. And now our products are ETTER than ever: consider our innovation in tank cleaning, for instance.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers