USELESS GEN-ON CORPORATION LOOKS TO SCREW NORTH ROCKLAND TAXPAYERS FURTHER

Supervisor Phillips delivers bad news about GenOn and also attacks North Rockland school board at Sep. 10th Town of Haverstraw board meeting

Who knew there was a company that could accomplish so little with a fully functional gas plant?

The Town of Haverstraw may be facing more financial problems in the near future, as it looks likely that the GenOn power company will have their Haverstraw property assessments dropped again, according to Haverstraw Town Supervisor Howard Philips.

The question about the progress with GenOn came during a town board meeting at the Haverstraw Town Hall on Monday evening from concerned resident, Mel Post.

GenOn has filed a tax grievance earlier this year concerning the property tax assessment of their Bowline Generating Plant property. GenOn says that the town assessments for the property are too high, considering the plant is active only a handful of peak days out of the year.

“We’re trying to settled without going to court,” said Philips. According to Philips the Bowline plant only operates 15 to 20 days a year as a peak power plant and GenOn currently pay $10.5 million in taxes on the property.

However, said Philips, newer power plants elsewhere in the country that operate 80 percent of the time are only paying $4 to $5 million a year is property taxes.

“If they’re paying $10.5 million running 15 to 20 days, and brand new plants are only paying $4 to $5 running 80 percent of the time, you can imagine where the assessment’s going to have to go,” said Philips. “We could easily see a 50 percent reduction in the assessment, which would mean a 50 percent reduction in the taxes.”

Philips also railed again the financial practices of the North Rockland Central School District (NRCSD). “We’ve got to get some fiscally minded people on that board,” he said referring to the school board. “We need the school to hold the budget, not increase the budget.”

Of the $10 million in property taxes collected on the Bowline property, $7 million goes to pay for the school district. In May, voters passed a 2012 – 2013 budget of $201,525,130 for the NRCSD, a 2 percent increase over the budget for 2011 – 2012.

Following business as usual, the board voted on several agenda items all of which passed unanimously. The board voted to authorize several taxi certiorari for Double Wings Realty regarding the Taco Bell and old Blockbuster Video properties.

The board also set a date for the public hearing concerning the sewer assessment roll for 2012. The hearing will take place on September 24 at 8 p.m. at the town hall.

Bruce Leach of the Hudson Valley Radio Control Club was in attendance at the meeting. Leach received praise from the board for last month’s Haverstraw Airshow, where Leach and his colleagues flew radio-controlled airplanes for a large group of spectators. The board estimated the crowd at around 500 people.

The Town of Haverstraw and the Hudson Valley Radio Control Club will be hosting another air show event on September 22 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The next meeting of the Haverstraw Town Board will be Monday September 24 at 8 p.m.

  Haverstraw, north rockland central school district, rockland county, Stony Point, town of haverstraw, village of haverstraw