Deal Nearly Doubles TMI Taxes

Tuesday, May 20, 2008 

BY MARY KLAUS 

Of The Patriot-News 

The Lower Dauphin School Board approved an agreement with the owner of Three 

Mile Island that nearly doubles the property taxes the company pays the district each 

year. 

The board voted unanimously Monday night for the deal in which AmerGen Energy Co. 

will pay the district $637,000 a year from 2008 through 2017. Under a 2005 deal, the 

company paid $320,000 a year. 

The agreement calls for AmerGen to annually pay a total of $930,000 to the school 

district, Dauphin County and Londonderry Twp., the nuclear facility's host municipality. 

It previously paid the three a total of $450,000. 

District spokesman Jim Hazen said the district will receive $637,000 annually, while 

the township and county will share $293,000. 

By entering the agreement, "Three Mile Island is being a good neighbor," Lower 

Dauphin School Board member Marcela D. Myers said. 

The agreement is consistent with the company's belief "to make a positive impact on 

the community," said Bill Noll, the TMI site vice president. "All the parties worked 

constructively together to make this agreement happen." 

The amount of property tax TMI owes the three entities has been disputed since the 

electric industry deregulation in 2000. 

In 2005, the county, school district and township agreed to an out-of-court settlement 

that lowered the assessment on the damaged Unit 2 nuclear reactor from $16.2 

million to zero and on the operating Unit 1, owned by AmerGen, from $64.9 million to 

nearly $20 million. 

That resulted in a drop in the total property taxes paid to the three entities from what 

was once a combined $1.5 million to $450,000. 

MARY KLAUS: 255-8113 or mklaus@patriot-news.com