What is a PILOT?

A PILOT is a negotiated payment a company makes instead of property taxes. In the standard Tennessee arrangement, a company’s property is made tax-exempt for an agreed period (see the title-transfer mechanism), and the company pays a contractually fixed amount, usually far less than the taxes would have been, as the price of locating or expanding in the community.

The core trade: the government gives up tax revenue it would have collected; the company delivers investment and jobs it might otherwise have taken elsewhere. PILOT agreements typically run 5 to 20 years and specify payment schedules, job or investment commitments, and sometimes clawbacks if the company under-delivers.

A PILOT replaces taxes that would normally be split among taxing jurisdictions (a city, its county, and through the county, the school system). That makes the distribution of PILOT money as consequential as its amount. A property tax splits by law; a PILOT splits however the agreement says, and in Gallatin’s practice the checks are paid to the Industrial Development Board, which then distributes them. Tennessee requires IDBs to report their PILOT agreements annually to the state Comptroller, whose registry is the public record of what was promised and paid.

Why it matters in this investigation: the Woolhawk (Meta) PILOT’s distribution terms specify no city/county split, and the Comptroller registry shows $0 ever reaching Sumner County from the county’s largest development.

Sources: T.C.A. § 7-53-305(b); Resolution R2005-24 (sumner_county/gallatin_council_meetings/2020-05-12-r2005-24-woolhawk-pilot-terms.pdf); Comptroller PILOT reports (state_of_tennessee/tn_comptroller_pilot_reports/). Documents cited in the investigation are published in full at Sources; paths above are their location in the research archive.