LIPA payments still in dispute

Nassau County has agreed to hand over LIPA payments to school districts, but there are still funds in dispute.

LIPA, which owns properties operated by PSEG, was said to have owed $49 million to school districts in taxes, which were being paid as Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOTs) through the LIPA Reform Act of 2013. Late last year, Nassau County allowed LIPA to remove its properties from the 2015-16 tax rolls and to make PILOTs instead — which reduced funds for every district. The county is responsible for distributing the funds to municipalities.

When LIPA disagreed with its tax assessment and transmitted $4 million less than expected to Nassau County, the county withheld $50 million worth of payments from the districts.

Nearly all of the 55 school districts in Nassau joined in a lawsuit against the county, arguing that the county is responsible for paying differences in tax rolls under the county guarantee. On Jan. 28, the county agreed to send out checks for $45 million total to districts. The checks went out in the mail last Friday.

Island Park is owed $140,000 and Oceanside is owed $2.2 million. So far Oceanside has received $1 million from Nassau County in what is the expected first of two payments from the 2015-16 tax rolls. Island Park received $371,736 from the county, which is about $14,000 short of what was expected from the first payment.

However, about $4 million remains in dispute because LIPA disagrees the bills calculated by the county. The districts will meet again in court on Feb. 4.

Robert Cohen of the law firm Lamb and Barnosky represented Island Park and other districts in the lawsuit. Cohen said this issue needs to be determined because PILOT funds are a part of the tax levy calculations for municipalities. The deadline for districts to determine their tax levy is March 1.

“The lawsuit is continuing because of the $4 million, and because we need all of this clarified by March 1 and every year hereafter,” Cohen said. “It’s not only a tremendous amount of taxpayer money, we need legal issues clarified.”