LONG ISLAND POWER AUTHORITY AND LONG ISLAND LIGHTING COMPANY,
RESPONDENTS-APPELLANTS, v. SHOREHAM- WADING RIVER CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT, ET
AL., APPELLANTS- RESPONDENTS.
N.Y.2d 503, 670 N.E.2d 419, 647 N.Y.S.2d 135 (1996).
June 13, 1996
2 No. 107 (1996 NY Int. 145)
Decided June 13, 1996
_________________________________________________________________
This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication
in the New York Reports.
Ernest T. Bartol, Richard C. Hamburger, and Lou Lewis, for
Appellants- respondents.
Arthur J. Kremer and Michael Lesch, for Respondents-appellants.
LEVINE, J.:
These cross appeals involve the construction of provisions of the
Long Island Power Authority Act (Public Authorities Law §§ l020 to
1020-hh, L l986, ch 5l7 (eff. January l5, l987)), dealing with the
obligation of plaintiff Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) to make
payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs) to the defendant local governmental
taxing jurisdictions which otherwise would have been due from
intervenor plaintiff Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO) except for
LIPA's acquisition of LILCO's Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant. At issue
are: (l) the effective date for substitution of LIPA's PILOT
obligation for LILCO's real property tax liability on the Shoreham
plant; (2) whether and at what level, if any, PILOTs on Shoreham are
to continue in perpetuity; and (3) whether and to what extent LIPA may
seek refunds on past PILOTs based upon court challenges to existing
assessed valuations of the Shoreham plant.
Enacted in l986, the LIPA Act created a public power authority having
the prerogative to acquire all or part of LILCO's assets through a
negotiated settlement, tender offer for LILCO's capital stock or the
exercise of eminent domain (Public Authorities Law § l020-h). The Act
further stipulated, however, that upon acquisition of the Shoreham
plant, LIPA was to close and decommission the plant "forthwith"
(Public Authorities Law § l020-h(9)).
The LIPA Act gave LIPA tax exempt status, as a public authority,
respecting any property it acquired from LILCO (Public Authorities Law
§ l020-p). In recognition of the potentially drastic fiscal impact of
SNIPPETS:
LONG ISLAND POWER AUTHORITY AND LONG ISLAND LIGHTING COMPANY,
RESPONDENTS-APPELLANTS, v. SHOREHAM- WADING RIVER CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT, ET
These cross appeals involve the construction of provisions of the Long Island Power Authority
January l5, l987)), dealing with the obligation of plaintiff Long Island Power Authority to
the effective date for substitution of LIPA's PILOT obligation for LILCO's real property tax
The Act further stipulated, however, that upon acquisition of the Shoreham plant, LIPA was to
The LIPA Act gave LIPA tax exempt status, as a public authority, respecting any property it
In recognition of the potentially drastic fiscal impact of the loss of local property tax
Each year after property theretofore owned by LILCO is acquired by the authority by any means
he in lieu of tax payments shall in the first year after the acquisition be equal to one hundred
In each succeeding year such in lieu of tax payments shall be decreased by ten percent until
Prior to the transfer of the Shoreham plant to LIPA on February 29, l992, LILCO had made a
Under tax legislation for Suffolk County, the tax year for real property taxes runs from
The defendants' answers asserted counterclaims seeking declarations that: LILCO was
ompletely constructed and "nonoperative", and defendants could use all remedies provided by the
Plaintiffs and defendants cross appealed, and the Appellate Division affirmed.
We find no indication, either in the statutory language or legislative history, that the
|
