Bill Text: NY A07698 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Prohibits the Long Island power authority from bringing a tax certiorari challenge against a municipality.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-01-06 - enacting clause stricken [A07698 Detail]
Download: New_York-2019-A07698-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 7698 2019-2020 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY May 16, 2019 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. RAIA -- read once and referred to the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions AN ACT to amend the public authorities law, in relation to prohibiting the Long Island power authority from bringing a tax certiorari chal- lenge against a municipality; and providing for the repeal of certain provisions upon expiration thereof The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Legislative intent. The legislature finds and declares that 2 the Long Island power authority ("LIPA") took over the Long Island 3 lighting company ("LILCO") in 1998. As part of that takeover, represen- 4 tatives from both LILCO and LIPA made repeated public representations 5 that LIPA would drop all outstanding tax certiorari challenges previous- 6 ly initiated by LILCO, and would not challenge the assessments on its 7 four "legacy" power plants ("plants") in the future. For over a decade 8 LIPA adhered to its commitment. In 2010, however, LIPA brought suit 9 against the county of Nassau, the towns of Brookhaven and Huntington, 10 and the village of Port Jefferson ("the assessing municipalities"), 11 alleging that the assessing municipalities have over valued the plants 12 thereby seeking a reduction in their assessed value and a repayment of 13 the over-taxes they paid. 14 The legislature further finds that according to LIPA, if these tax 15 certiorari challenges are successful against the assessing munici- 16 palities, in addition to a significant reduction in the assessed value 17 of each plant going forward, the "back-taxes" owed to it would be: 18 $500,000,000 from Huntington; $200,000,000 from Nassau County; and 19 $300,000,000 from Brookhaven/Port Jefferson. That refund would be borne 20 by all taxpayers across the respective municipality, and would be due 21 immediately. If the assessing municipalities lose at trial, in order to 22 refund that exorbitant amount of money would require a massive increase 23 in property taxes for residents in the respective municipality. In addi- EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD11137-01-9A. 7698 2 1 tion, the drastic reduction in the value of each plant would immediately 2 wipe out a significant amount of school taxes generated by such plant to 3 the school district in which the respective plant is located. In the 4 Northport-East Northport school district, if the Northport plant were 5 found to be valued at what LIPA alleges its value to be, the school 6 district would immediately lose one-third of its tax base. 7 Therefore, the legislature finds LIPA made a number of promises to the 8 Long Island community, federal, state and local elected officials, 9 school districts, and taxpayers in the assessing municipalities that it 10 would not challenge its taxes. That promise was relied upon by the 11 community and upheld by LIPA for years. LIPA broke that promise and 12 therefore the legislature finds it necessary to codify in statute the 13 promises LIPA agreed to before significant financial harm is brought 14 upon the assessing municipalities. 15 § 2. Section 1020-f of the public authorities law is amended by adding 16 a new subdivision (a-1) to read as follows: 17 (a-1) 1. Notwithstanding subdivision (a) of this section, the authori- 18 ty shall not and is prohibited from bringing a tax certiorari challenge 19 against any municipality in which one or more of its electric generating 20 facilities are located, unless the municipality abusively increases the 21 assessment on the authority's property in which such electric generating 22 facility is located. 23 2. Any tax certiorari challenges the authority, or its predecessor in 24 interest, initiated prior to or after the enactment of the chapter of 25 the laws of two thousand nineteen that added this subdivision against 26 any municipality that was not the result of an abusive assessment 27 increase are deemed void and non-justiciable. 28 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately; provided, that this act 29 shall be deemed to have been in full force and effect on and after Janu- 30 ary 1, 2009; provided further, that any memorandum of understanding or 31 settlement agreement previously entered into between a municipality and 32 the authority as a result of a tax certiorari challenge reducing the 33 assessed value of one of the authority's electric generating facilities 34 shall be deemed void; and provided further, that paragraph 2 of subdivi- 35 sion (a-1) of section 1020-f of the public authorities law added by 36 section two of this act shall expire and be deemed repealed one year 37 after the effective date of this act.
