Questioning authority

Daily Point

Quality control

Talk about a power struggle.

Last week, State Sen. James Gaughran accused LIPA and the Northport Power Plant of being “in severe violation of state and federal air pollution standards for dangerous and hazardous compounds, including Volatile Organic Compounds (“COCc”) emitted from the Northport Power Plant,” according to a state Department of Environmental Conservation report.

Gaughran also accused LIPA of failing to file “overdue public safety reports to the Town of Huntington Planning Board on the Northport Power Plant.”

The first-term Democrat held a news conference to level the charges, and his accusations generated a lot of heat on social media sites where LIPA is the big topic. Adding to the immediacy of the message were the recent closing of Northport Middle School due to potential environmental concerns and a state health department review which found a “statistically significant” higher rate of leukemia among the Northport High School graduating Class of 2016, spurring further investigation.

Tuesday, LIPA fired back on both assertions, and quite effectively on at least one of them. According to a letter released by LIPA, Gaughran misread the report on Volatile Organic Compounds. LIPA says the report the senator cited applies to a very large region - the New York metro area including LI, Northern New Jersey, and Westchester and Fairfield counties. 

LIPA also argued in the letter that any responsibility for filing public safety reports to the Town of Huntington Planning Board falls on National Grid, the owner of the plant; LIPA says that Grid claims it is compliant with all requirements.

Gaughran, in his response to LIPA’s response, did not mention the air pollution issue, possibly conceding LIPA’s point. 

But he did fire back on the reporting issue, writing, “The Town of Huntington never released LIPA from the obligations and reporting responsibilities that were undertaken in the original siting agreements with the Northport Generating Station.” 

He is essentially arguing that LIPA inherited these reporting requirements from LILCO and that they can’t be shunted off on National Grid. 

It might be the least memorable battle in the war over the Northport Power Plant and its property taxes … but it does show how seriously both sides are taking every sortie.

—Lane Filler @lanefiller

Talking Point

Diminishing returns

Democratic control of the State Senate has not been kind to Republican coffers on Long Island. 

Each senator in the 6-member Democratic delegation logged more in his or her January closing balance than GOP Sens. Phil Boyle and Ken LaValle, who is retiring. And Democratic fundraising leader Sen. Todd Kaminsky has much more in the bank than GOP minority leader John Flanagan. 

Flanagan’s descent has been particularly stark. The former leader of the chamber raised just more than $100,000 in the three filing periods dating back to the end of 2018, when Democrats took power. Over the same period two years earlier, the East Northport Republican had pulled in more than $700,000. 

The LI Republicans are still receiving contributions from some law enforcement unions and businesses, but the sum has dipped with their reversal in fortune. Take the Real Estate Board PAC, an arm of the influential developer community. The PAC had given Flanagan $11,000 in 2016 and $10,000 in 2017, and then only $3,000 in 2018 and 2019 combined. 

A similar situation occurred with some individual donors, like Democratic philanthropist James Simons who has donated on both sides of the local partisan divide. He sent $20,000 to Flanagan between 2015 and 2016, but nothing over this past year of Democratic control. 

Asked about the decline in fundraising, Senate GOP spokeswoman Candice Giove sent a statement touching on hot-button political topics in Albany such as new bail legislation that was enacted under Democratic control. 

“November can't come soon enough,” she wrote. 

—Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Pencil Point

Entanglement

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Final Point

Asking the tough questions

In between lots of talk of New York City buses and subways, state senators from Nassau and Suffolk counties peppered Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials with questions about the Long Island Rail Road during a budget hearing Tuesday in Albany.

Sen. Kevin Thomas asked MTA chief development officer Janno Lieber about the third-track project, saying he disagreed with the notion of giving contractors bonuses based on local neighborhood feedback, because it involves taxpayer dollars.

Lieber said the effort has worked well, especially as a way to hold contractors accountable on key community concerns like noise. But he noted that the third-track contractors aren’t getting top grades from the quarterly scorecards. 

“They’re not earning A’s,” Lieber said. “But they’re earning solid B’s, and collecting a portion of the bonus.”

Sen. Todd Kaminsky asked Lieber about Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s expansion of the MTA’s police force and, yes, there will be additional new officers at LIRR stations and on trains. Kaminsky also asked about plans to construct a new station at Belmont Park.

“We’re ready to go,” Lieber said about the planned new railroad stop on the north end of the racetrack - which, in the end, will be paid for by the developers who are building the arena and retail on the site.

Lieber also told Kaminsky that he’s been holding regular meetings with Amtrak, most recently on Monday, about the need to rehab the East River tunnel, which was damaged in superstorm Sandy, and received a new commitment from Amtrak to consider more innovative ways to repair the tunnel that might limit service outages.

Work on the East River tunnel will start after the East Side Access connection to Grand Central Terminal opens in 2022.

East Side Access was brought up by Sen. Jim Gaughran, who spent his time pushing for additional service on the Oyster Bay line. Lieber said the increased capacity provided by the third track and East Side Access could help make that happen.

During the hearing, Lieber also assured the legislature that East Side Access remains on schedule for that 2022 opening. 

“You can count on it,” Lieber said.

—Randi F. Marshall @RandiMarshall

Reminder Point

Tell us what you think about LI Divided

Newsday is continuing the conversation about housing discrimination on Long Island with a live forum Thursday in Brentwood. The event, which will be moderated by journalist and TV anchor Errol Louis, follows a three-year investigation by Newsday that revealed evidence of unequal treatment of minority homebuyers. 

You can get your free tickets by registering here.