Solages wants utilities to pay their fair share of taxes

We have to lobby and advocate in order to get them to pass our bills, or even getting them to hear our bills.”

Carrié Solages

Nassau County Legislator Carrié Solages is sponsoring a bill that would require utility companies to pay their fair share of taxes on the properties they own. Solages unveiled the proposed legislation at an Aug. 8 press conference at the Legislature.

The bill has gained the support of his minority caucus colleagues, including Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams and Legislators Delia DeRiggi-Whitton and Arnold W. Drucker.

“Other classifications are paying more than their fair share,” Solages said. Properties are assessed by category, including residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, vacant lot, and public services.

Solages’s proposed legislation would make it mandatory for utility companies to disclose the use, age, and the original and current cost of their generators, telecommunication lines and other property in Nassau County. They would be required to disclose and itemize their assets, even properties that were no longer in use during the previous year. Property that was added or is in the process of being built or improved on would also be required to be included.

“Those entities have to file income and expenses,” Solages said. “The county assesses property — commercial, residential — and when they assess those properties, they do it based on just how much land they have, but not on what the land is actually being used for. There’s a loophole that exists as a result. There’s no disclosure required by them to file income and expenses.”

Utilities, he added, “were assessed at a lower value. As a result, the people in the surrounding neighborhood areas, (like) Oceanside and East Rockaway, had to pay more in taxes.”

Under the bill, income and expense statements for the previous year would be due by April 1, with noncompliance fines of 0.25 percent of the property’s fair market value. Utilities that don’t file by Sept. 30 would face fines that would increase to half a percent of the property’s value. If noncompliance continued into the following year, the fine would ratchet up to .75 percent.

The bill is said to provide more accurate assessments and meant to avert disputes between utility companies. Schools, libraries, and fire districts are already dealing with sudden revenue losses after the settlement of LIPA’s lawsuits on the assessed values of the E.F. Barrett Power Station in Island Park and the Glenwood Generating Station in Glenwood Landing.

“LIPA filed a grievance, so they’re taking advantage of the system when they’re not even using the property,” Solages said. “Their property was shut down because of (Hurricane) Sandy, but still, it wasn’t fair. They should have incorporated future earnings.”

In the settlement, LIPA was allowed to reduce its combined tax payments by nearly half for the two properties. It will pay $32 million over the next five years, down from the projected $59 million. The measure was intended to keep the plants operational through 2027. LIPA has suggested phasing out fossil fuel plants by 2040, however, leaving many to wonder if the settlement was worth its proclaimed value. In addition, LIPA’s contract with its plant owner, National Grid, ends in just six years.

“The problem is that the tax bills have gotten so inflated that it’s really just not sustainable,” LIPA Chief Executive Tom Falcone told Newsday, noting that some plants are already 50 to 70 years old. “We’re agreeing to phase down payments over time for infrastructure that will go away,” Falcone said.

LIPA noted that the Barrett plant in Island Park had reduced output over the past few decades, and was distributing power from elsewhere. Newsday reported that it cut the overall output for the Island Park plant by 97 percent.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman cheered the LIPA settlement as “historic,” saying it would stabilize tax payments while protecting taxpayers from “hundreds of millions of dollars in refund liability.”

Democrats have argued that the plants’ output should figure into their tax assessments. Solages said, “I think the real strategy is to require them to file their income expenses.”

Solages said he recognized the uphill battle against the Republican majority, saying, “They treat us like a stepchild,” and that Democrats would have to lobby and advocate to get Republicans to pass any bill or even get them to consider it.