Will Nassau-LIPA tax deal give schools a fair shake?

Daily Point

School districts powerless in Nassau/LIPA deal?

When Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman announced a deal last week with LIPA to settle the power-plant tax certiorari case the county has been fighting for 12 years, he did so with some fanfare. This has dragged on forever, but much of Blakeman’s accomplishment is thanks to the nature of Nassau County politics, and a running clock. The deal on offer has not gotten significantly better since Blakeman replaced Laura Curran at the county’s helm, but the Republican-dominated county legislature is more likely to approve for a partymate what it would not for an opponent, particularly with a court date set for May.

There’s a problem, though. Blakeman’s deal with LIPA may not settle all the suits brought in Nassau County related to the plant assessments, unlike the structurally similar deal Huntington Town reached with LIPA over the Northport Power Plant last year.

As the assessing bodies in each case, Huntington and Nassau both had responsibility for settling the cases, and the massive liabilities in refunds had they lost in court.

One of the biggest holdups in the Huntington settlement was the town’s insistence that it would not sign off on a 50% reduction over seven years of its local plant’s $84 million annual tax bill unless the Northport-East Northport school district was entirely satisfied with its treatment.

In the end, Huntington’s willingness to hold out even as it faced a looming court decision and potential $500 million in liability netted the Northport School District another $14.5 million.

But Nassau and Blakeman are not making settlement of the North Shore school district’s claim a priority. And while North Shore attorney John Gross told The Point Friday that the district “thanks County Executive Blakeman for his strong recommendation to LIPA to replicate the Huntington deal,” LIPA isn’t budging and argues it already has replicated that deal, by its own standards.

So North Shore is redoubling its efforts, not winding them down. The communications firm Butler PR is now working to get the district’s side of the story out. Meanwhile, Gross is arguing that the deal would cripple the school district, and that complexities with Nassau’s four-class tax system and the way the Nassau deal, structured as a payment in lieu of taxes, affects the district levy, would force it to seek huge tax increases.

So what will the county legislature actually do, for Blakeman and for the districts? That’s not yet certain, but GOP Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello was quite clear on the GOP stance when he spoke about not approving Curran’s deal in January 2021.

Nicolello told The Point then that he had a responsibility to see that the school districts were fully taken care of in terms of both the direct payment Huntington’s deal would lead them to expect, and the complexities of both the Nassau tax system and the PILOT agreements, before he and his caucus could sign off on the county’s agreement.

Friday, Nicolello said he’s still fighting hard to get more for the districts, and this is not a done deal. But, he pointed out, “We’re running out of runway, with the court date looming, and the liability involved if we lose this case is a big consideration.”

— Lane Filler @lanefiller

Talking Point

Zeldin bench marks

GOP gubernatorial hopeful Lee Zeldin has been setting a few implicit or explicit bench marks for himself in recent public statements.

At a rally in Bellmore last Sunday with local conservative and far-right groups including Long Island Loud Majority, the Shirley Republican said that “we should have term limits on everybody in office.”

In a section of his speech that was critical of President Joe Biden, Zeldin stated very definitely that “I have never given a teleprompter speech live ever.”

And in his barrage of social media critiques of Gov. Kathy Hochul in recent days, there was Zeldin’s exhortation that Hochul “needs to stand in front of reporters RIGHT NOW and answer A LOT of really important questions from reporters.” He added that this “is a really bad time to be in hiding.”

It’s always easy to make big statements as a candidate about general conduct as an elected official. Recent polls show Zeldin behind Democratic nominee Hochul, but there are some warning signs for the incumbent, and should he emerge victorious in November, it would be interesting to see how closely he hews to past statements.

Perhaps he hasn’t used a teleprompter to aid him in a formal speech so far, but would that change for a State of the State?

Would he happily oblige reporters eager to pepper him with questions?

Would he go home after a limited time in office, with or without actually-enacted term limits?

Asked about these, Zeldin spokeswoman Katie Vincentz reiterated Zeldin’s previous statements, noting that he “supports term limits of two terms of four each” and “would not run for more than two terms regardless.”

About responsiveness, as governor, “He would absolutely be taking more media questions than Governor Hochul does.”

— Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Pencil Point

Burner phone

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Quick Points

Klain-speaking

• White House chief of staff Ron Klain said President Joe Biden doesn’t believe Biden’s son, Hunter, broke any laws in his past business dealings. Which is decidedly not the same thing as believing he didn’t do anything wrong.
• Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) says he’ll vote against Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the Supreme Court but added that her confirmation will be a “high point for the country.” OK, explain why that’s not hypocrisy.
• Numerous Democrats are frustrated with Attorney General Merrick Garland’s steady and deliberate approach to the Jan. 6 inquiry and a possible prosecution for former President Donald Trump. Funny, but when former President Barack Obama nominated Garland for the Supreme Court in 2016, two words used by Democrats to support his nomination were steady and deliberate.
• COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S. hit a new low late last week, the lowest level since 2020, which has the nation feeling good. But the United Kingdom, a bellwether for the U.S. throughout the pandemic, just hit record-high levels with nearly 5 million people infected. Yes, we’ve seen this movie before.
• Former President Donald Trump endorsed former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in her just-announced bid for Congress. That’s one of the least surprising endorsements of this or pretty much any election cycle.
• Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rejected Democratic worries about the 2022 election by saying “hand-wringing is part of the Democratic DNA.” And that’s coming from a noted hand-wringer.
• Scenes from the Ukrainian city Bucha of mass graves and corpses with bound hands, bullet holes in the backs of heads, gunshot wounds from close range, and torture after a Russian withdrawal have been horrific. Even worse: There likely will be more Buchas to come.
• Give credit to Gov. Kathy Hochul and State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins: In this year’s budget negotiations, they’ve proved the adage about three men in a room was indeed sexist. Women can be just as secretive and opaque as men.

— Michael Dobie @mwdobie