Tax Programs to Finance Clean Energy Catch On

Then a developer, Blue Horizon Energy, made a proposal: Grandview Tire and Auto, using a new loan program, could borrow the $34,000 to install the system and pay it back over 10 years, but instead of making traditional loan payments, they would be made through his property taxes.

Now, with 117 panels on one of his five stores, he is saving $3,600 a year and bringing in new customers attracted to the company’s green image.

The program, he said, “made the concept of adding solar to our business reality.”

After years of fits, starts and unanticipated pitfalls, the long-term loan program — championed by the White House but stymied by federal housing officials — is gaining traction across the country, especially among businesses like Grandview. Known as Property Assessed Clean Energy financing, the approach allows owners to borrow the money for conservation or clean energy upgrades and pay it back over the long haul, often 20 years, through a property tax surcharge.

Since June 2011, the number of projects completed with the financing has more than doubled, to at least 168 worth $33 million, from 75 worth $10 million, according to PACENow, a nonprofit advocacy group that tracks the programs. The group says that 30 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws allowing the program, and estimates that the number of projects could easily double by the end of next year.

And the approach is on the verge of becoming more widespread. A week ago, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas signed legislation that would allow more commercial and industrial projects to go forward. Texas joins seven other states that are amending their laws this year to allow the financing, while several local and state governments, including Connecticut, Sacramento, Miami and Atlanta, either have new districts with loan programs or soon will.

“It’s an idea that resonates and is catching on,” said David Gabrielson, the PACENow executive director. “I see encouraging signs in the build-out of a whole new approach to funding energy efficiency.”

Despite the program’s growth among businesses, the group it was originally intended for — homeowners — is still largely left out. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees financing for two-thirds of new residential mortgages through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, does not allow those agencies to buy mortgages for properties with liens that have a higher priority for payback, as PACE loans often do.

Local governments have long used special taxing districts to finance improvements to private property that benefit the public. The idea behind PACE was to turn that idea toward upgrades like new windows and insulation or solar arrays that often cost more than property owners could pay upfront but less than they would save on electricity bills over time. Berkeley, Calif., pioneered the concept in 2008, and it quickly expanded, sometimes with the help of grants from the Department of Energy to pilot projects in several towns and states across the country.

But the program hit a snag in 2010 when the F.H.F.A., under pressure to improve its balance sheet during the housing crisis, derailed the program largely because in most cases the PACE loans would have to be repaid before the mortgages during a foreclosure.

Congressional and legal challenges to the agency’s rulings have failed to overturn them, but advocates remain hopeful that a federal policy change could open up the loans to more homeowners.

“What’s frustrating is when there’s something which is an obvious win — it’s not even contentious — and it doesn’t go forward,” said Dan Kammen, director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, who helped design and study early PACE programs.

Obama Calls Surveillance Programs Legal and Limited

Christopher Gregory/The New York TimesObama Defends Surveillance Programs: President Obama defends and explains a National Security Agency program that monitors domestic and international phone records.

Bucks Blog: How Many Government Programs Have You Benefited From?

Mitt Romney stirred up a hornet’s nest with his comments about the 47 percent of Americans who he thinks are dependent on the government.

It turns out, according to 2008 data from the Cornell Survey Research Institute reported Monday in a Times opinion piece, that 96 percent of Americans have taken part in government benefit programs in one form or another.

Listed below are 21 programs referenced by the researchers. Numbers 1 through 13 are “direct,” meaning that the aid comes directly from the government; the remainder are considered “submerged,” in that they come indirectly, through government tax policies. (For instance, the money you put in your workplace 401(k) plan grows tax-deferred).

Head StartSocial Security DisabilitySocial Security Retirement and Survivors BenefitsSupplemental Security Income (SSI)MedicaidMedicareWelfare (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or T.A.N.F.)G.I. BillVeterans’ benefitsPell GrantsUnemployment InsuranceFood StampsGovernment Subsidized HousingHome Mortgage Interest DeductionHope and Lifetime Learning Tax CreditsChild and Dependent Care Tax Credit529 accounts (qualified tuition programs) or Coverdell education savings account (Education I.R.A.’s)Earned-income tax creditEmployer subsidized health insuranceEmployer subsidized retirement benefitsFederal student loans

In an e-mail, Suzanne Mettler, a professor of government at Cornell, explained a bit more about the two forms of employer benefits (Numbers 19 and 20), saying they “are even more submerged than the other policies in that group, because unlike with the others, people take no actual steps to claim the government benefit. As long as one is acquiring those employer-provided benefits, one simply gets the tax benefit — if the employer put the same money in people’s paychecks, they would have to owe taxes on it.”

I personally have benefited from student loans, the home mortgage deduction and employer health and retirement benefits, and my children have 529 education savings plans. My dad went to college (proudly) on the G.I. Bill. My upbringing was middle class.

Take a look at the list and let us know: How many of these have you received or relied on? Are you poor, working class, middle class, upper middle class, or part of the 1 percent?