Power players play for time
Huntington held a public hearing on the proposed settlement for the Northport power plant on Monday. Credit: Newsday/John Paraskevas
Which came first, LIPA’s decision to give the Town of Huntington until Sept. 3 to accept its offer on the Northport power plant’s taxes, or Huntington’s decision to push its vote up from Sept. 16 to Sept. 3?
The steps to making it happen were so tentative and probing that even one of the primary go-betweens in making it happen can’t quite say.
Suffolk Deputy County Executive Jon Kaiman has been a player behind these scenes off and on for about a year and became more heavily involved in the past few weeks. He told The Point Wednesday, “No one could be seen to be the first to move, to come off their position. So it was really a back-and-forth until both sides could see there was real willingness on the other side.”
Huntington held a public hearing on the proposed settlement Monday. It would lower LIPA’s taxes for the Northport power plant from $86 million to $46 million over seven years, give the Northport-East Northport School District an extra $14.5 million over that period, set that $46 million rate for another five years if the plant is included in a new power-purchase agreement, and forgive tax refunds that could have reached $850 million.
And that hearing’s tone, featuring significant public support for taking the deal, changed the tenor of talks between LIPA and Huntington. It was enough to lead the town board Tuesday to move up its final public hearing and a vote on the deal to Sept. 3, a change that passed by a 4-1 margin, and for LIPA to soften its stance and keep its offer open until then.
“What we saw at Monday’s hearing, after years of all the public anger being against any settlement, was a 50/50 split of supporters and opponents of our offer,” LIPA spokesman Sid Nathan said. “That was a huge change, and it made us feel this really was a good-faith effort to get to a deal, and that giving the town until September 3 made sense.”
Nathan and LIPA were not the only ones surprised and gladdened by the public support Monday night for a settlement. Huntington Supervisor Chad Lupinacci told The Point Tuesday that the speakers in favor of the deal clearly led to a shift.
And the fact that the resolution to move up the town’s hearing and vote was sponsored by Joan Cergol and Mark Cuthbertson, and gathered the support of Ed Smyth, was notable. All three have publicly hovered between chilly and lukewarm on the deal.
Some things did not change. Board member Eugene Cook has been the leading opponent of the settlement, and was alone in voting against the date change Tuesday.
And how did Kaiman come to be involved in a situation in which Suffolk County is not considered to have significant liability? Residents had been coming to County Executive Steve Bellone for help, and the fear of huge tax increases became a significant issue in his reelection run last year, which was part of why Kaiman initially got involved in pushing the parties back to mediation talks.
But Suffolk also had a potential liability if the judge overseeing the certoriari case ordered Huntington to pay a rebate of up to $850 million to LIPA. According to the Suffolk County Tax Act, it appears the county would have to advance that money until the town collected it from residents, at $10,000 to $25,000 per household, on its next tax bill.
“I’m not conceding that we’d have to put that money up,” Kaiman said, suggesting the situation would have likely ended up in court because the law is not entirely clear and the county is not a party to the tax challenge. “But,” he added, “we certainly don’t have $850 million, or any easy way to bond for it.”
Lane Filler is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
