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By Kate Hessling Assistant News Editor

UPPER THUMB Local governments are working under a tight deadline to develop a plan to substantiate what they believe are true taxable values for wind turbine developments. At the same time, they are throwing their support behind a special tax State Rep. Kurt E. Damrow has proposed for wind energy developments.

Wind companies pay personal property taxes for wind developments, and the taxable values are established by the Michigan Tax Commission. Those values and, as a result, the amount of personal property taxes wind developers pay counties, local townships, schools and libraries decrease each year because of depreciation. And, per an October ruling by the state commission, there will be a larger than previously established drop in values this year.

The county expects the decreased values will mean a roughly $260,000 loss in revenue from local wind developments this year, said Huron County Commissioner Ron Wruble.

In light of the immediacy of the situation, where counties will lose at least 20 percent of revenue from local wind developments, officials are focusing on proceeding with their own study of true cash valuations rather than waiting to get the information from the FOIA requests, Krause said. He said they have until early March to develop a plan substantiating what values they believe are correct because thats when assessments are presented to townships.

At the same time, TRREC, the Michigan Association of Counties, Michigan Township Association and government officials from other counties experiencing wind development are supporting House Bills 5278 and 5279, which were sponsored by Damrow, R-Port Austin. The bills create a separate category to tax commercial wind developments. Its called the Alternative Commercial Energy Systems (ACES). It previously included commercial wind, biomass and solar electric generating systems, but its been amended to include only wind, Damrow said.

We will work on an agenda for commercial biomass and solar, but right now, time is of the essence (for wind developments), he said.

If lawmakers in Lansing approve the ACES tax, rather than paying personal property taxes, wind developers would make ACES payments. The payments either would be a base fee thats established for each system based on the rated megawatt hours each unit will produce, or $4 per megawatt hour generated for sale.

Damrow said his proposed plan is a county-levied tax with 40 percent of the revenue going to the county general fund, 40 percent to the township general fund and 20 percent divided among the host county public schools.

He said with his plan, a township with 50 commercial 1 to 3 megawatt generator wind turbines would see a minimum payment of $482,000 annually to its general fund, and the same amount would be paid to the county general fund which is much more than the $239,739 that Huron County Treasurer Sherry Learman said was distributed among all the local host townships in 2011. The county received $387,837 last year.

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Officials support proposed tax on turbines

Garrie McCreddin, wife Karen and daughters Isabella, 5, Charlotte, 3, and Mackenzie, 18 months, in Bali. Photo: Jason Childs

HOW'S this for a lurk? Garrie McCreddin dropped out of school at 16 and now, aged 33, he earns a salary of $190,000 in the hand. He gets six months holiday and spends his downtime surfing at Bali's secluded Echo Beach, where he lives with his wife and three kids - and their four servants.

Until a few years ago Mr McCreddin, who works as a driller on an exploratory oil and gas rig - currently drilling off China - based himself in Perth. But he, like hundreds of Australians who work in mines and on resource projects in WA, NT and in Asia, has decided to live in Bali, rather than Australia.

The itinerate nature of Bali suits the lifestyle of these fly-in, fly-out workers. There are now 16 or 17 flights every day from Perth to Bali, 11 each week from Darwin and two from Port Hedland, making it possible for miners to work in Australia and commute to Bali.

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Miners such as 25-year-old Dylan Coles, who is employed as an engineer in the remote Savannah nickel mine in the East Kimberley. At the end of his two-week shift, Coles flies back to Bali where he lives with his Javanese girlfriend. The cost of his commute, from Darwin to Bali, is less than $3000 a year. His annual rent is just $2000. Unsurprisingly, he saves half his $125,000 salary.

In Mr McCreddin's case, there were several reasons for his move. One was lifestyle - he can indulge his passion for surfing and still drop off and pick up the kids from school. Tax was another reason. His company pays tax in whichever country he is based. In 2009 a change in the tax law meant he would have to pay the difference between the Australian rate and the local rate. He decided to move and says there are hundreds of other Australians working in the mining and resource sector across Asia who have done the same.

''I can't see us going back to Perth,'' he says as he looks out from a cafe across Echo Beach. ''I just can't see it.''

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All work, all play: Bali expats

The demand for home services from expats in China is rising as an increasing number have come to work and live in the country, mainly in big cities.

Around 600,000 expats were living on the Chinese mainland at the end of 2010, and about 231,700 of them had work permits, according to the latest national census and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Samina Hasan is from Pakistan and works at an international organization in Beijing.

She hires a 37-year-old Chinese domestic helper who has worked for her family for three years.

"She does cleaning and washing in my house and sometimes cooks for me and my husband. She knows quite well about our habits and our special days of religious significance," she said.

Hasan said she uses sign language to communicate with the helper.

"I think we could communicate better if I spoke better Chinese and she spoke more English. But it's not a problem."

Hasan said almost all the expats she knows in Beijing need domestic help.

Shi Bohong, general manager of Rikang Home Service Company in Beijing, said his firm provides services to more than 20 expat families.

Shi said many of his clients are employees at embassies who ask domestic helpers to go to their homes in the early morning to make breakfast and then do some chores and laundry until they come back home at 5 or 6 pm in the evening.

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Expats fuel demand for domestic helpers

The demand for home services from expats in China is rising as an increasing number have come to work and live in the country, mainly in big cities.

Around 600,000 expats were living on the Chinese mainland at the end of 2010, and about 231,700 of them had work permits, according to the latest national census and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Samina Hasan is from Pakistan and works at an international organisation in Beijing.

She hires a 37-year-old Chinese domestic helper who has worked for her family for three years.

"She does cleaning and washing in my house and sometimes cooks for me and my husband. She knows quite well about our habits and our special days of religious significance," she said.

Hasan said she uses sign language to communicate with the helper.

"I think we could communicate better if I spoke better Chinese and she spoke more English. But it's not a problem."

Hasan said almost all the expats she knows in Beijing need domestic help.

Shi Bohong, general manager of Rikang Home Service Company in Beijing, said his firm provides services to more than 20 expat families.

Shi said many of his clients are employees at embassies who ask domestic helpers to go to their homes in the early morning to make breakfast and then do some chores and laundry until they come back home at 5 or 6 pm in the evening.

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Expats fuel demand for home helpers in China

Those who moved to the eurozone may be struggling to survive, but a surprising survey suggests that the majority of British expats have been relatively unaffected by the economic turmoil of the past five years

According to the annual quality of life index from NatWest International Personal Banking , nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) of expats have not seen their quality of life deteriorate in the last five years.

Although the number who are watching their spending on luxury items has more than doubled, from 17 per cent when the index was first compiled in 2007/8 to 44 per cent today, more expats than ever (83 per cent) said they regarded themselves as between "comfortably off" and quite prosperous.

David Isley, the head of NatWest International Personal Banking, said the results suggested that expats were riding the storm of a struggling global economy.

Expats living in the East in particular, China, the UAE, Hong Kong and Singapore were most likely to say that their financial position had improved dramatically since moving abroad, while expats in the Commonwealth countries of Australia, Canada and New Zealand assessed their situation as having improved significantly".

Unsurprisingly, expats in debt-stalked Western Europe are enjoying less prosperity, with the three European countries focused on in the research France, Spain and Portugal all now significantly lower in the quality of life rankings than they were in 2007/8. All three also registered a drop in "financial confidence" this year, with expats there more likely to return to the UK than from other locations.

The number one country for quality of life was Canada, for the third year running a country which, NatWest pointed out, had fared considerably better than the balance of countries hit by the financial crisis.

Robert Church Taylor, who lives in Dubai, said that the global economic slowdown had a significant effect on expats in the UAE when it began, but that the destination seemed to be finding its feet again as an international financial centre, and is getting busier".

My financial situation has certainly improved since moving here there's a 20-30 per cent salary increase here compared to the UK, and a lower cost of living," he said.

Some expats however said the survey painted an over-optimistic picture.

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Expats ‘riding the storm’ of economic downturn