The Host Community Fee | Indiana Century S1E10

There's a nuclear plant in Illinois, just across the state line from Indiana. It's been running for decades. Every year, it generates billions of dollars in value. Clean power. Good jobs. Tax revenue. None of that money comes to Indiana. The jobs are in Illinois. The tax revenue stays in Illinois. The economic activity happens across the river.

Indiana has power plants too. Coal plants, mostly. Some are closing. Some have closed. When they close, the jobs leave. The tax revenue leaves. The towns that grew up around them are left with empty buildings and a tax base that can't support the schools they built. The company walks away. The community is stuck with the cleanup, the empty buildings, the lost revenue.

That's the extractive model. The company builds. The company operates. The company takes the profit. The community gets the plant during its life and the liability after it's gone.

The Host Community Fee flips that.

Four to five dollars per megawatt hour. Every reactor pays it directly to the county where it sits. For a typical small modular reactor, that's ten to twelve million dollars a year. Every year. For forty years. For eighty years.

Forty percent for property tax relief. Thirty percent for schools. Twenty percent for rural health clinics. Ten percent for animal welfare.

That's what sovereignty looks like at the county level. Not an abstraction. A check.

We also talk about the Trump administration forcing Indiana to keep old coal plants open. And we break down how a reactor actually makes money: building it, selling the power to manufacturers, steel mills, college campuses, and hospitals, then sharing the revenue with host counties.

The fee is locked by constitutional amendment. Amendment 3, the Revenue Lock. Sixty percent voter approval required to change the allocation. That money belongs to the county. Permanently.

Featured book: The Fight for the Four Freedoms by Harvey J. Kaye. FDR's vision of freedom from want and freedom from fear. The Host Community Fee is how we keep that promise in Indiana.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Indiana Century Podcast, hosted by Corey Easterday. Episode 10. The Host Community Fee.

Part 1 - The Money That Leaves

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Part 1: The Money That Leaves. There are 11 nuclear power plants in Illinois, just across the state line from Indiana. They have been running for decades. Every year, they generate billions of dollars in value, clean power, good jobs, tax revenue. None of that money comes to Indiana. The jobs are in Illinois. The tax revenue stays in Illinois. The economic activity, the restaurants, schools, roads, all of it happens across the border. Indiana has power plants too. Coal plants mostly. Some of them are closing. Some have already closed. But here's the thing about coal plants in 2026. The federal government is forcing states to keep them open. The Trump administration issued orders that Indiana must keep its coal plants running no matter how old, no matter how inefficient, no matter how much it costs the ratepayers. Indiana is stuck buying power from plants that should have been retired years ago. And when those plants finally do close, the jobs leave, the tax revenue leaves. The towns that grew up around them are left with empty buildings and a tax base that can't support the schools that they helped build. The company walks away, the community is stuck with the cleanup. The empty buildings, the lost revenue. That is the extractive model. We host a plant, we get the disruption, the company gets the profit. And when the plant dies, we get the liability. Today in episode 10, we talk about the most direct, most tangible piece of the Indiana Century project. Not just some big idea, not a long-term investment, it's a check. A check that shows up every year for decades in the hands of the people who host the infrastructure that we build. That is the host community fee. $10 to $12 million a year, every year, for 40 to 80 years. Direct to the county where a reactor sits. This is how we make sure that the communities that power Indiana actually get paid. Not with promises, but with actual checks.

Part 2 - The Tax Base That Disappears

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Part 2. The tax base that disappears. Let me tell you a story. It's a story that's played out in towns all across Indiana. Maybe you've seen it yourself. A power plant gets built, usually a coal plant. It creates jobs, it creates tax revenue. Maybe the town builds new schools, paves new roads, hires more teachers. The plant is the economic engine. Everything revolves around it. Then the plant starts to age. Maintenance costs go up, it gets harder to compete with cheaper natural gas and renewable energy. The company starts thinking about closing it. But then the federal government steps in and says, You can't close your power plant. You must keep it running. Keep losing money, keep charging ratepayers more to keep the lights on from a plant that should have been retired a decade ago. That is where Indiana is right now. The Trump administration is forcing Indiana utilities to keep coal plants open that are no longer economically viable. We, Hoosiers, are paying higher electric bills to keep old plants running because the federal government says so. It's a form of extraction that most people don't even see. Your bill just goes up. The money goes to out-of-state coal companies and out-of-state utility shareholders. And you get nothing in return except older, dirtier, less reliable power. And when the plant finally does close, the jobs leave. The tax revenue leaves. The town is left with the same schools, the same roads, the same obligations, but half the revenue. This makes property taxes go up, services get cut, teachers get laid off. The town that depended on the plant is left with nothing. That's the extractive model. The company builds, the company operates, the company takes the profit, the community gets the plant during its life, and the liability after it's gone. But there is another way. A way where the community doesn't just host the infrastructure, it gets paid for it. Where the revenue doesn't disappear as soon as the plant closes, it keeps flowing. Where the community gets compensated for the value it provides, not just the inconvenience that it endures. That's the host community fee.

Part 3 - How A Reactor Makes Money

SPEAKER_00 5:35

Part three. How a reactor makes money. Before I explain the host community fee, I need to explain something more basic. A lot of people don't understand how a nuclear reactor would make money for a state like Indiana. They think it's just a big expensive thing that produces electricity. That's true, but it is not the whole story. Here's how it works. You build a reactor, it costs a lot of money up front, that is the hard part. But once it's built, it runs for 40 to 80 years. The fuel is relatively cheap. The operating costs are low. The reactors run almost all the time, over 90% of the year. That's called capacity factor. Solar panels run about 25% of the time. Wind turbines run about 35%. Nuclear runs 90%. So you're getting power almost constantly. That power has to go somewhere. So you sell it. You sell it to the manufacturers who need reliable electricity to run their factories. You sell it to the steel mills that can't afford a power outage. You sell it to the college campuses that want to decarbonize their energy supply. You sell it to hospitals that need backup power for life-saving equipment. You sell it to data centers that consume massive amounts of electricity. You sell it to the grid itself, to the utility companies that distribute power to homes and businesses all over the state. Every megawatt hour the plant generates, you get paid. That's the revenue. The reactor is an asset that produces a product, electricity, that never goes out of style. Everyone needs it. Everyone always will. So once the reactor is paid off, the revenue turns into profit. And that profit belongs to the people of Indiana because the reactor is publicly owned. Let me say that again. Once the reactor is built and the construction debt is paid down, the revenue from selling electricity becomes profit. And because the Indiana Energy and Resilience Authority would own the reactor, that profit belongs to the Hoosiers. It doesn't go to shareholders in Charlotte or New York. It stays right here. It goes to the future fund. It pays for property tax relief. It pays for birth grants. It pays for the host community fee. So when you hear $10 to $12 million a year to your county, that money isn't coming out of thin air. It's coming from the revenue the reactor generates by selling electricity. It's a share of the profit. The county gets paid because the county hosts the asset that makes the profit. In short, that is the host community

Part 4 - FDR's Four Freedoms

SPEAKER_00 8:40

fee. Part 4. FDR's Four Freedoms. This episode's featured book is The Fight for the Four Freedoms by Harvey J.K. On January 6th, 1941, the greatest generation gave voice to its founding principles, the Four Freedoms. Freedom from want and from fear. Freedom of speech and religion. In the name of the Four Freedoms, they fought the Great Depression. In the name of the Four Freedoms, they defeated the Axis powers. In the process, they made the United States the richest and most powerful country on earth. And, despite a powerful reactionary opposition, the men and women of the greatest generation made America freer, more equal, and more democratic than ever before. Now, when all they fought for is under siege, we need to remember their full achievement and, so armed, take up again the fight for the four freedoms. The fight for the four freedoms tells a story that cannot be forgotten of a visionary president and the generation he inspired to renew America and save the world. But it is, as well, a roadmap that can get this country off its long detour and back to the path FDR charted toward that freer, more equal, and democratic America. You might recognize the author from Episode 4, where we talked about his book Thomas Paine and the Promise of America. Kay is the historian who's been writing for decades about America's tradition of democratic sovereignty, the idea that ordinary people have the right to build things together and share in what they build. In the fight for four freedoms, Kay tells the story of Franklin Roosevelt's vision for a new kind of America. In 1941, with the world at war, Roosevelt gave a speech that laid out four freedoms that should be universal freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. The first two were were already familiar. The last two were radical. Freedom from want means economic security. Freedom from fear meant safety from violence and disaster. Here's what Kay wants you to understand. Roosevelt wasn't just listing ideals. He was arguing that government had a responsibility to create the conditions for those freedoms to be real. That meant public investment. It meant infrastructure. It meant making sure that ordinary people, not just the wealthy, shared in the prosperity that they helped create. The Four Freedoms speech became the foundation for the New Deal for Social Security, for the GI Bill, for the middle class that built post-war America. The host community fee is an extension of that same philosophy. It's not charity or a handout. It's the recognition that when a community hosts infrastructure, when it provides the land, the workers, and the support system, it deserves to share in that value infrastructure creates. Freedom from want means that people who power the state shouldn't be left behind when the plant closes or when the federal government forces old plants to keep running. Freedom from fear means that a community shouldn't have to worry about losing its tax base overnight. Roosevelt's four freedoms were a promise that America could build a society where everyone shared in prosperity. The host community fee is how we keep that

Part 5 - How The Fee Works

SPEAKER_00 12:32

promise in Indiana. So how does the host community fee actually work? Let me walk through. So how does the host community fee actually work? Let me walk you through it step by step. Step one, build the reactor. The Indiana Energy and Resilience Authority builds a small modular reactor. It costs money up front, but that's what the Bank of Indiana and federal grants are for. Once it's built, it starts generating electricity. Step two, sell the electricity. The reactor produces power. That power gets sold to customers, manufacturers, steel mills, college campuses, hospitals, data centers, and utility companies. Every megawatt hour generates revenue. That revenue pays for operations, pays down construction debt, and eventually turns into profit. Step three, share the profit. The host community fee takes a slice of that revenue. Four to five dollars per megawatt hour. Let me put that into perspective. A typical small modular reactor generates up to about 300 megawatts of electricity. It runs about 90% of the time. That's roughly two and a half million megawatt hours per year. At four to five dollars per megawatt hour, that's ten to twelve million dollars every year for 40 to 80 years. Step four, send the check. The fee that we just talked about goes directly to the county where the reactor sits, not to the state, not to the utility, to the county. The county decides how to spend it within the categories set by law. And step five, lock it in. The host community fee should be locked by constitutional amendment. Our proposed amendment three is the revenue lock. We propose 60% voter approval required to change this allocation. That means the money can't be

Part 6 - What The Money Does

SPEAKER_00 14:54

rated by the state legislature, it can't be diverted to other priorities. It means that it belongs to the county permanently. Part 6. What this money does. Let me make this concrete. What does $10 to $12 million a year do for a county in Indiana? This money would provide property tax relief. 40% of the fee goes to property tax relief. That's $4-5 million a year in a typical Indiana County. That money can provide property tax relief. 40% of the fee would go to property tax relief. That's $4-5 million a year in a typical Indiana County. That's enough to reduce property tax bills by 10 to 15%. For the average homeowner, that's $200 to $300 a year. It's not necessarily life-changing, but that is a real benefit, especially for seniors on fixed incomes. Second is schools. 30% would go to schools. That's $3 to $4 million a year. In a typical county, that's enough to raise teacher pay by $2,000 to $3,000 per teacher. Or add 10 new teachers. Or buy new equipment for shop class, expand vocational programs, or reduce class sizes. Next is helping our schools. 30% would go to the schools. That's three to four million dollars a year. In a typical county, that's enough to raise teacher pay by $2,000 to $3,000 per teacher. Or add 10 new teachers to a high school. Or buy new equipment for a shop class. Maybe expand vocational programs, or even reduce class sizes. Next is rural health. 20% goes to rural health clinics. That's two to three million dollars a year. That's enough to keep a rural hospital open, enough to staff an entire health hub, enough to buy mobile clinics, enough to provide dental care to families who can't afford it. And last but not least is animal welfare. Ten percent goes to animal welfare. That's one to two million dollars a year for the county. That's enough to fund low-cost spay and neuter for the entire county, enough to support the local shelters, enough to create an animal stewardship core that connects volunteers, reduces stray populations, and builds communities. Now, here's what happens when you have multiple reactors in one county. Indiana has 92 counties. We're planning on up to 50 reactors over a 25-year period. Some counties will not get reactors, many won't, but the counties that do get a host stream that transforms

Part 7 - The Geography of Hosting

SPEAKER_00 18:07

them. Here's what happens when a county gets multiple reactors. They get a stream of income that transforms them. Imagine a county with just two reactors. That's twenty to twenty four million dollars per year. Property tax relief goes from ten percent to twenty percent. Schools get six to eight million, rural health gets four to six million, animal welfare gets two to four million. That's the difference between a county that's struggling and a county that's thriving. But what about the counties that don't get a reactor? They still benefit. The reactors power the whole state, the trains run through every region, the fiber connects every community, and most importantly, the future fund, funded in part by the host community fees, pays for property tax relief and birth grants for every Hoosier, regardless of where they live. The host counties get the direct check, but every county gets the benefit of a state that's building, growing, and sovereign. Part 7. The Geography of Hosting. Let me address the question that's probably on your mind. If this is such a good deal, why don't we put a reactor in every county? The short answer is that nuclear reactors have specific siding requirements. You need water for cooling, you need bedrock for stability, you need transmission infrastructure,

Part 8 - Objections & Responses

SPEAKER_00 19:42

you need a workforce. You need a host community that is willing. Not every county meets those requirements. But here's the longer answer. The host community fee isn't about making every county equal. It's about making sure the counties that host get paid fairly for what they provide. They're taking on the infrastructure, they're bearing the construction disruption, they're accepting the perceived risks. They deserve compensation. And the counties that don't host still get something. They get the economic activity from the supply chain, they get the jobs from the Indiana Century Corps training facilities, they get the rail stations and fiber connections, they get the property tax relief and birth grants from the Future Fund. They get a stronger state economy that benefits everyone. This isn't a zero-sum game. One county hosting a reactor doesn't take anything away from another county. It adds to the whole. And when the whole gets stronger, every part benefits. Part eight. Objections and responses. Let me walk you through the objections that I hear about the host community fee idea. Objection one, it'll make nuclear power too expensive. $4-5 per megawatt hour adds about 4-5% to the cost of nuclear power. That's negligible. And the money that goes directly to communities is not a tax, it is a dividend. The people who host the infrastructure get paid instead of that money going to out-of-state investors. Objection two. Why should counties get paid for something they didn't build? Counties provide the land, they provide the workforce, they provide the community that makes the plant possible. They bear the disruption of construction, they accept the perceived risks. Getting paid for that isn't charity, it's simply what's fair. Objection three What about counties that don't get a reactor? Every county benefits. From the Indiana Century Project. The reactors power the whole state. The trains run through every region. The fiber connects every community. And the future fund, funded in part by the reactors, pays for property tax relief and birth grants for every Hoosier. The host counties get the direct check. But every county gets the benefit of a state that's building. Objection four, the county won't spend the money wisely. Counties already manage budgets.

Part 9 - Extraction or Partnership?

SPEAKER_00 22:33

They already make decisions about schools, roads, health clinics. The host community fee gives them more resources to do what they're already doing. And the categories property tax relief, schools, health, animal welfare, ensure the money goes to things that matter to the people of the state. Objection five: this is just corporate welfare. Corporate welfare is when you give a company tax breaks and get nothing in return. The host community fee is actually the opposite. The company builds, the company operates, the company pays, the community gets the benefit. That's the deal. Objection six. What happens when the reactor closes? The host community fee lasts for the life of the reactor. That's 40 to 80 years. And when the reactor closes, the county has had decades of revenue to build reserves, to invest in other assets, to create a post-reactor economy. That's the difference between a company town and a sovereign community. Part 9. Extraction or partnership. So here's where we are. For decades, Indiana has been a host. We host power plants, we host pipelines, we host warehouses, factories, and what do we get for it? Disruption, wear and tear, and then the plant closes. We get the liability. Right now, we're being forced to keep coal plants open by the federal government. We're paying higher bills to keep plants running that should have been retired. That's extraction. That's being used. The host community fee changes that. It turns hosting into a partnership. The state builds a reactor, the reactor generates power, the state sells that power to manufacturers, steel mills, college campuses, hospitals. The revenue comes in, the host community fee sends a share directly to the county every year for decades. That's the difference between extraction and partnership, between being a host and an owner,

Part 10 - Conclusion & Preview

SPEAKER_00 24:57

between being used and being valued. Imagine your county ten years from now. A reactor is built, it's running. Every year the county gets $10 to $12 million straight from its revenue. Property taxes go down, schools get more money. The health clinic stays open and the animal shelters get funded. Your kids grow up with better schools, your parents get health care closer to where they live. Your neighbor keeps their farm because property taxes are lower. Your town now has a clinic, a school, and a community that is thriving. This isn't just some fantasy. It's simply a choice. A choice to build, to own our own infrastructure, a choice to partner. It's the same choice FDR offered when he talked about freedom from want and freedom from fear, not handouts, a foundation, not dependence on the government or a corporation. This plan is dignity for Indiana. Part 10. Conclusion and preview. The host community fee is the most direct, most tangible piece of the Indiana Century Project. It's not a long-term investment, it's not a complex financial mechanism, it's a check that shows up every year, four decades, in the hands of the people who host the infrastructure that we build together. $10 to $12 million a year, 40% for property tax relief, 30% for schools, 20% for rural health, 10% for animal welfare. That is what sovereignty looks like at the county level. Not abstraction, a check straight to the county. But none of this happens unless we stop being passive hosts. The federal government is forcing us to keep old coal plants open. Out-of-state utilities are taking our money. We are paying higher bills for power we don't want from plants that are killing our communities and our environment. The host community fee is how we take control back. We build our own reactors, we sell our own power, we pay our own counties. What would $10 million a year do for your county? What would it mean for your property taxes, your schools, your health clinic, your local animal shelter? What would it mean to be a partner and not just a host? That's the question. And the host community fee is the answer. I'm Corey. This is the Indiana Century Podcast. And remember, sovereignty isn't given, it's built.