Port Jefferson Schools, Village to Battle Grid's Tax Petition

The Port Jefferson School Board and Mayor Margot Garant have sent a letter to residents and have called for a special town hall meeting on Nov 17 in response to National Grid's filing of a tax petition with the Town of Brookhaven to lower the payment it makes on the Long Island Power Authority power plant located in Port Jefferson.

In the letter, the mayor and school board outlined how the loss of income from Grid would affect the tax base in Port Jefferson, where money from the power plant has helped keep property taxes lower than average.

Earlier this year the school board and the Village joined together to form a LIPA Task Force to address this issue.

"We have a lot of brainpower around the table," said Mayor Garant about the task force at a Port Jefferson School Board meeting on Oct 12.

On the agenda at the meeting was a motion to set aside $50,000 from the school's budget to contribute to hiring a consultant who will help design a business plan for the Village. The plan will make a case as to why repowering the plant in Port Jefferson is better than any other option available on Long Island.

The board approved the expenditure and authorized the administration to enter into an agreement for a request for proposal with the Village.

Mayor Garant promised that the Village stood ready to match the school board's funds with a contribution also coming from the Village of Belle Terre.

"This is going to be a very difficult challenge," said Mayor Garant in a speech before the School Board. "This is not just going to take a village. It's going to take every resident, household, property owner and child in this district to stand up and fight."

LIPA says that the challenge to the tax payment is necessary. A spokesperson said that the company is looking to control costs and property tax payments are a large portion of the fees its customers pay.

"In an effort to control these costs, LIPA has obtained an independent analysis of certain National Grid generating facilities, including the Port Jefferson and Northport plants," said Mark Gross, director of dommunications for the Long Island Power Authority. "Since then, National Grid has filed tax petitions in the Town of Brookhaven and the Town of Huntington, similar to the practice followed by other utilities, taking the next step to ensure that LIPA does not have to pass along more than its fair share of property tax costs to its customers."

Port Jefferson School Board Vice President Mark Doyle said that the district gets about 40 percent of its revenue from LIPA, which is about $17 million out of a budget of $37 million.

He said that whatever impact the tax petition will have on the school and the town will depend on the final assessed value of the property.

"The lawsuit asks for a very substantial reduction," Doyle said. "The village's budget is much smaller than the school district's, but also would be adversely affected."

The worst-case scenario is LIPA shutting down the plant for good. If that happens then the money would have to made up somehow.

"Through a combination of budget cuts and increased taxes on other taxpayers," Doyle said. "Government aid might be another possibility, but I don't know what the likelihood of that is."

At the very worst for the school it would mean having to merge with another district.

"I am hopeful that we will find another, less extreme, outcome that will provide a quality educational program for our children," Doyle said.

Doyle said that the task force will present a case for keeping the power plant open.

"We are advocating for a renewed investment in the plant in order to increase its value while contributing more substantially to Long Island's power needs," Doyle said. "Closing the plant would be quite an expensive undertaking, so there are good reasons to re-power the plant rather than shuttering it."

The town meeting about the LIPA tax petition and possible options for the town is set for Nov. 17 at 7 p.m.