“PILOT,” in governmentspeak, means “payment in lieu of taxes.” It’s a big financial giveaway by a state or local government to a company to persuade (some say bribe) that company to locate jobs within that government’s jurisdiction.

PILOTs usually mean the elimination or major reduction of property taxes (perhaps sales taxes as well) for a period of years. The company would then donate to the local government a smaller amount of money than the forgiven tax revenue.

Two weeks ago, a company called Wild Hill Solar announced the most outrageous request for a PILOT that I’ve ever seen. Wild Hill wants the Jefferson County Commission to sign off on an agreement that will cost the county about $80 million in property taxes over a 39-year period. In return, Wild Hill Solar promises to create about 200 construction jobs (each will last about a year) and FOUR permanent jobs. According to a recent newspaper story, Wild Hill Solar proposes to pay about $29 million to county government and our school board over the next 39 years, as opposed to the approximately $110 million it will owe without a PILOT.

Talk about shameless. Several years ago, Rockwool asked for (and got) a tax break of less than half that amount, to create about 130 jobs. I considered THAT request a bad deal for our county.

Remember Norm Thompson? That company was given a 10-year PILOT to locate a warehousing/distribution plant in Jefferson County. After nine years, that company pulled up stakes and left for a similar PILOT somewhere in Pennsylvania.

I have supported some PILOTs. I believe that a PILOT is justified by the number and/or the wage range of the guaranteed jobs, combined with the relative poverty and joblessness of the area around the proposed location.

Two years ago, I supported a PILOT for the NUCOR steel plant being built near Huntington. The guarantee in that agreement was for at least 700 permanent jobs paying an average of more than $50,000 per year. The unemployment rate in that region has been, for years, much higher than the statewide average. Moreover, that area has been hit with a health crisis far greater than just about anywhere else in the country.

Compare NUCOR’s PILOT to Wild Hill’s offer of four permanent jobs in Jefferson County, which has the highest per capita income and the lowest unemployment rate in West Virginia!

Psst, NUCOR is making steel from recycled material, and is using an electric arc furnace (rather than coal) to make it. Please don’t let anyone know that NUCOR is “woke.”

I don’t oppose solar farms in principle. I do oppose their desire to be exempt from local zoning. Hey, these same firms build solar farms in other states where they are not exempt from zoning, and those local governments have stronger zoning laws than Jefferson County. I think that the zoning regulations Jefferson County has applied to solar farms are too lax.

The request for a PILOT by Wild Hill Solar is, to me, nonsensical.

John Doyle is a 26-year former member of the West Virginia House of Delegates. He can be reached at rjohndoyle@comcast.net.