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Dear Concerned Resident:
We are writing to make
you aware of two significant developments in our continuing battle
against LIPA's effort to raise your taxes by challenging the assessment
on the Northport Power Plant.
Last week, the Appellate
Division of State Supreme Court unanimously upheld a lower court ruling
that kept in the case the 1997 pledge as part of the agreement between
LIPA and LILCO not to challenge the Northport plant's assessment as long
as the plant's assessment was not disproportionately increased. The two
Appellate Division decisions, in cases filed by the Town of Huntington
and the Northport-East Northport School District, noted both a letter
then-LIPA chairman Richard Kessel sent to the Town and statements Kessel
made to the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association. In both
instances, Kessel said LIPA and LILCO would drop any pending tax
certiorari cases and not initiate any further ones at any time in the
future.
These decisions can be
considered big wins for the Town and the school district. How big? The
analyst at Moody's Investors Service who follows the Northport-East
Northport School District called the decision "credit positive" for the
school district and noted that "the ruling will benefit other local
governments on New York's Long Island with tax bases that also have
significant exposure to LIPA." The analyst specifically cited the Town
as one of those governments.
The second development
was action by the Town Board in response to recent state legislation
requiring LIPA and National Grid to study the feasibility of repowering
the Northport Plant. In a resolution we sponsored, the Town Board, at
the July 11 meeting, voted to create a "Repower Now Citizens
Committee." This nine-member committee will include representatives
from the Town, the school district, the Villages of Northport and
Asharoken, as well as persons with engineering and sustainable energy
backgrounds. Creating this committee will allow local residents to
provide input into the LIPA-National Grid repowering analysis.
We have said since the
outset of LIPA filing its assessment challenge that repowering Northport
would provide a solution both to the assessment case and to Long
Island's future energy needs. We have contended that repowering existing
plants such as Northport is more cost-effective than building new
plants and have offered not to increase the assessment on the plant to
reflect any improvements that are the result of repowering. We hope that
the Repower Now Citizens Committee will help provide relevant
information that will help the LIPA-National Grid feasibility study
reach the same conclusion. The Town is currently seeking experts to
serve on the Committee.
We are at the place in
the case - pretrial proceedings -- where events develop slowly. But do
no read the lack of new information as an indication that we have
weakened our resolve. We still stand firm and united in our
determination to beat back LIPA's effort to slash its taxes while
raising yours.
We will continue contacting you when we have new things to report.
Sincerely,
Supervisor Frank P. Petrone and Councilman Mark Cuthbertson
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