Politics & Government
Port Jeff Village, LIPA Reach One-Year Deal on Taxes
Port Jefferson village voluntarily reduces taxes on power plant to buy time to work out a long-term solution with LIPA.
Long Island Power Authority has reached a deal to reduce the taxes the utility pays to the Village of Port Jefferson for the 2011/2012 tax year. In return for the reduction, LIPA will not pursue additional reductions to village taxes for one year. The two sides say that they will continue to work together to negotiate a long-term solution.
The Village Board of Assessment voluntarily reduced the assessed value on the power plant from $11,860,945 to $10,674,852. The actual dollar amount in taxes that LIPA will pay to the village under the new assessment was unavailable as of the writing of this article.
In the 2010/2011 budget for the village, LIPA taxes accounted for just about 30 percent of a total revenue of $8,285,840.00.
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The agreement only affects village taxes, not the grievance that LIPA still has ongoing with the Town of Brookhaven. That bill is about $23 million per year and accounts for .
In February, LIPA filed a tax grievance seeking a 90 percent reduction in the assessed value of the Port Jefferson power plant. Last month that the utility hoped for a negotiated settlement saying that "litigation is not in the best interest of LIPA rate payers."
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In a statement released by the Mayor’s office today both sides expressed their appreciation at coming to a mutual solution.
"This demonstrates [LIPA’s] commitment to work together and to Port Jefferson village as the host community," said Mayor Margot Garant.
Michael Hervey, Chief Operating Officer of the Long Island Power Authority said that the agreement will help the two entities work out a more permanent solution.
"We went into this with the commitment to work with the village," said Hervey. "We have had several productive meetings to discuss the plant and how we both can come to an agreement that would be fair to all of our Long Island customers."
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