CLINTON - When the DeWitt County Board of Review meets Thursday to hear Exelon Corp.'s appeal of the assessed valuation of the Clinton Power Station, it won't get much sympathy from two of the taxing bodies opposed to the appeal.

The Clinton school board last week recommended against a proposal from Exelon that would set the assessed valuation at $188 million in exchange for the power company dropping its appeal to have the assessed valuation set at $185 million.

The DeWitt County Board said it has no interest in a deal, either.

"We're going to stay firm," said Ed Young, finance committee chairman. "We think that figure is more than reasonable. When you look at what is happening with other plants in similar situations around the country, the assessed valuation of $200 million is low in our eyes."

Both the school district and county are struggling with a loss of tax revenue attributed to the decreased valuation of the plant at the start of the decade. This year, the assessed valuation of the plant has been set at $200 million, doubled from last year's total. However, Exelon, which owns the plant, is appealing that decision.

Exelon and the taxing bodies that receive tax revenue from the plant's property taxes will appear Thursday before the Board of Review.

There are two issues on which the appeal will be heard. The first deals with the assessment itself. Exelon believes the assessed valuation should be lowered to $185 million. The second issue concerns the acreage around the power plant; Exelon says the land is worth about $1 million but the county Assessor's Office has set the value about $4 million.

Young said a power plant being built in Texas could have an assessed valuation about $1 billion.

"Our stance is that we have assessed that plant fairly, and so we don't have much room to negotiate," Young said. "So we have no plans to accept a deal that would be less than what it was assessed at. That would certainly not be in our best interest and not in the best interest of the taxpayers."

Earlier this week, the Clinton school board made a similar recommendation to Superintendent Jeff Holmes, but the district did leave open the possibility of a multiyear deal if one would be beneficial.

If an agreement is not reached before Thursday, the Board of Review will have three options: ruling in favor of Exelon, ruling in favor of the taxing bodies or increasing the value of the property.

Kevin Barlow can be reached at kevin.barlow@yahoo.com.