Stout winds usually draw more curses than praise, but that may not be the case in Nolan and Taylor counties where the tax rate is dropping due to the burgeoning wind industry.

Nolan County residents are looking at an almost 5-cent reduction in the county's tax rate from 40.53 cents per $100 valuation to 35.75 cents.

Much of the reason is an increase in the county's tax base, thanks to the wind industry, said Nolan County Judge Tim Fambrough.

"We're very proud of it," he said.

Fambrough said some property values have risen, which might negate a lower tax bill for some people. He said the owner of a house with a taxable value of $100,000 last year and this year would see a $47.78 reduction in the county tax bill.

That example supposes that, after exemptions, the property's taxable value didn't change from one year to the next.

Taylor County, too, is proposing a slightly lower rate, from 47.07 cents per $100 valuation to 46.82. Higher values, though, might wipe out a tax reduction for some property owners, said County Judge George Newman.

Fambrough and Newman both credited the wind energy industry for making lower tax rates possible.

Jones County doesn't benefit from wind energy, but higher oil and gas prices helped commissioners propose a lower tax rate, said County Judge Dale Spurgin.

The proposed rate is 58.00 cents per $100 valuation, compared with the current rate of 61.57 cents. The total appraised value in the county is about $575 million, compared with approximately $512 million last year.

Of the $575 million appraised value, $8.7 million is in new residential construction, Spurgin said. Most of the increase is due to increased mineral values, he said.

Jones, Nolan and Taylor counties offer a standard homestead exemption plus an exemption for senior and disabled property owners.

Seniors and the disabled might pay less in taxes because of the lower tax rates. But if their property value increased, they won't pay more in taxes than they did last year.

The importance of those huge churning wind turbines on local economies can be seen in the numbers that county officials work from year to year.

"They play a big part," Taylor County's Newman said.

Taylor County's tax rate was 53.59 cents per $100 valuation in 2005, compared with the proposed 46.82 cents for the upcoming fiscal year. Rising property values may mean that not everyone will see a reduction in their tax bill, but if not for the lower tax rate, the bill would be higher.

Newman noted that Taylor County's tax base in 2003 was $3.8 billion, compared with the current $6.2 billion. The first wind turbines started whirling in 2005, which accounted for much of the increased value, he said.

Because the payoff can be so great, most counties offer tax abatements to lure wind energy companies. Different models are used, Newman noted, with the abatement percentage changing over a 10-year period. After 10 years, no tax abatement is offered.

Counties get the most tax revenue during the first five years of the abatement, Newman said, because that's when the value of the turbines and equipment is the highest.

But counties will always take in tax revenue from the wind turbines as long as they are producing, even after the value of the equipment has depreciated.

Newman said the beauty of the relatively new industry is that new projects start almost every year, meaning a stream of tax revenue for years to come.

"Our economy is strong," Newman said, "because wind energy has come to this area."