Maysville and Mason County have long been one of Northeastern Kentucky’s economic and cultural centers. Since Mason County’s permanent settlement in the late seventeen hundreds, each generation of rural and urban citizens has prospered by changing their business models to meet the market’s needs of their time.
As we plan our best way forward, we must first adjust historical dollar values for inflation and restate in 2022 and then consider these facts about Maysville/Mason County:
- In 2022 compared to the 1980’s Mason County had
- Transportation advantage was lost
- Not solved Inadequate sewage disposal in the rural areas, the #1 problem of the last Comp Plan
- Population DECREASED by 7.6%
- 2,549 fewer employed persons in 2023 than in 1999
- Even as area income, population, and employment decline, the cost of local facilities and services rise due to inflation and higher societal expectations.
- Mason County’s extensive electric transmission network can generate income and tax revenue without public capital investment.
- Large-scale solar can increase local tax districts’ revenue
We all want the best possible community in twenty years. Together we should choose a Comprehensive Plan to reduce the negative change we’ve seen in the last thirty or more years. We must adapt and prosper by changing how we deliver value to pay for Maysville Mason County’s community facilities and services in 2033.
Current Maysville Mason County Large-Scale Solar regulations are designed to discourage well-regulated solar from locating in our area. Our solar regulations should instead model the Kentucky Model Solar Ordinance. Doing so will:
- Protects our topsoil for future generations.
- Reduces chemical pollution in local watersheds.
- Generate revenue help to replace the $64 million of lost tobacco and dairy income
- Increase the number of local high-value job opportunities.
- Increase the real estate tax base to support local services
- Protect the land from creeping urbanization
Solar can differentiate our business recruiting efforts. As of January 2020, nearly half of Fortune 500 companies have made public renewable energy, greenhouse gas (GhG), or energy efficiency commitments. 63% of the Fortune 100 companies have pledged to consume more electricity from renewable energy generators. Many companies are seek rural areas with solar production to support this pledge for their new headquarters and service centers. New solar projects could make Mason County an attractive location for these companies, bringing more skilled jobs and tax revenue to our community.