Oswego, NY -- The Oswego school board Wednesday night rejected the tentative tax agreement negotiated for Nine Mile Point Unit I, saying no to an increase of about $4 million from the plant's owner. The vote was 5 to 1. Board member James Tschudy was the only board member to vote for the tax agreement. Board member Sean Madden was...
Oswego, NY -- The Oswego school board Wednesday night rejected the tentative tax agreement negotiated for Nine Mile Point Unit I, saying no to an increase of about $4 million from the plant's owner.
The vote was 5 to 1. Board member James Tschudy was the only board member to vote for the tax agreement. Board member Sean Madden was absent.
Board member John Dunsmoor said he voted against the agreement because the district “is leaving $6 million on the table.”
He said the Nine Mile Point Unit I plant is assessed at $600 million. The school district‘s tax payment o that amount would be $12 million for the year, he said. With the tax agreement, the district was set to receive $6.35 million.
Dunsmoor also said he believes the percentage of the tax dollars the district receives should be more. He said 68 percent of all the taxes he pays goes to the school district, so why shouldn‘t the district receive 68 percent of the nuclear plant’s payment.
The district receives about 57 percent of the money paid by Nine Mile Point Unit I.
Board member Francis Hoefer called the agreement a “dirty deal done dirt cheap.” He was against the secrecy he said was used during negotiations on the agreement. He also said he did not want to approve a tax agreement that would have given the district additional money that he said the district didn’t have to use to lower taxes for residents.
Constellation Energy owns and operates Nine Mile Point Units I and II. Negotiators recently came up with the agreement with Constellation to pay $11 million in taxes for the 2011 year.
The agreement has to be approved by all three taxing entities: town of Scriba, Oswego school district and Oswego County. Scriba's town board already has approved the agreement and the county has a public hearing on the proposed agreement scheduled for June 10.
If the agreement was approved by all three entities, the school district would have received $6,358,000 for the coming year. This year, with the PILOT agreement for Nine Mile Point Unit I, the district received $2,310,000.
The 10-year PILOT agreement for Nine Mile Unit I expires in December. The 10-year PILOT for the James FitzPatrick plant, owned by Entergy, expires in June 2011, and the PILOT for Constellation's Nine Mile Unit II expires December 2011.
Scriba lawyer Kevin Caraccioli said "the town of Scriba does not agree with the school board’s decision to reject the tax agreement. It was a misinformed decision."
"The school board did not even seek public comment before voting down the tax agreement that would have resulted in the taxpayers of the Oswego City School District receiving a 270 percent increase in tax revenue from Constellation for one year, while negotiations on a more comprehensive, long-term agreement continued," Caraccioli said.
"The school district stood to gain an extra $4 million which could have been used to lower the tax levy for all residents of the school district, while helping to stabilize the taxes paid by property owners in the surrounding communities," he said. "It is my sincere hope that the board of education members who voted to reject this agreement have not caused irreparable harm to the community. The Town of Scriba supports the agreement and urges the County of Oswego Legislature to approve the tax agreement on June 10."