Buffalo, Erie County strike deal with NYPA

[steven]

A protracted and public dispute over funding by the New York Power Authority to Buffalo and Erie County as part of a federal relicensing plan has been settled.

A formal announcement was expected Monday night by the parties. Terms of the agreement call for the city and county to receive a package worth $279 million over 50 years, according to a release from Rep. Louis Slaughter, D-Fairport.

The deal comes as NYPA seeks to have it license at the Niagara Power Project in Lewiston renewed by the federal government.

NYPA will allocate $2 million to greenway projects in Erie County and $2.5 million will go to the Erie Canal Waterfront Development Corp., another state agency recently created by Gov. George Pataki to oversee development along the city's harbor area.

Also,$1 million will come from the Empire State Development for waterfront development.

The deal also calls for $4 million to be granted upfront - $2 million in 2006 and $2 million in 2007.

An additional NYPA settlement includes funding which will be shared between Erie and Niagara counties. That deal will fund $3 million per year for state parklands projects in those counties and another $1 million per year will go for ecological projects.

The NYPA's previous deal paid the entities much less, leading to a squabble that has pitted Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, against the state agency and its supporters. Higgins has called for an audit of the NYPA over its operations and spending practices.

http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/s...ml?jst=b_ln_hl

[Treeguy]

If it weren't for Higgins persistance, it never would have happened.

[biker]

Meanwhile, we're stuck with another authority that continues to overcharge its customers.

[Treeguy]

but Higgins was able to get almost 3x what was offered, coming back to services that residents can utilize. I'm not going to complain about it.

[300miles]

Higgins deserves all the credit for this. Nobody else was pushing for it except for him.

But I think we're still getting shafted by this authority. They should not have settled until more information from the Audit came out. And it doesn't address the fact that we pay the highest cost for electricity with Niag Falls in our backyard.

[SolarEclipse]

Like I said in the other thread... I want to know if the audit is going to go through still or if this was hush money to make Higgins go away.

[yaksplat]

I'd rather have electricity for $.03 / kWh

[crlachepinochet]

WE'RE #1!!!




http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/brochure...ectricity.html

[yaksplat]

#2.......Hawaii has us beat at $.1673. We should literally be one of the lowest. Just imagine if your electricity bill was 30% of what it currently is (no pun intended using the word current ). I know i'd have an extra $150 a month to spend or save. Wouldn't that be a nice economic boost in erie county, if everyone had an extra 1500 a year to spend?

[biker]

Thanks for the map, Crache. Especially the source.

I've heard stuff over the past six months that we pay the highest; no we pay among the lowest; blahblahblah.

Thanks NYS for finding another way to rip me off.

And we crap we heard from the Authority: "we don't know how much we make from the Niagara Power Project; we don't track it."

If that's true (and I doubt it), it's only because they don't want to know how much they're making.

[citymouse]

I am glad we got the deal we got. If we did not deserve it the NYSpa would have fought it. They did not want to tackle Higgins head on anylonger because he was bringing out some things they did not want brought out for public scrutiny.
My only concern is that the issue of high paid patronage jobs, private planes, excessive travel. overpaid lawyers and consultants and a fleet of new cars and SUV's dosen't go away.
These are issues that have to be addresed and that authority is badly in need of reform.
Lets hope other's realize it too. But this is New York. So I wouldn't count on it.

[citymouse]

From the map it looks like the TVA is the only authority not ripping the taxpayers off.

[biker]

That's a good point, Citymouse, but even the TVA has stumbled.

I was speaking with a guy this summer who used to be an engineer with the TVA. In one generation, they went from generating electricity that no one might have wanted (just before WWII) to planning to build 24 nuclear plants to satisfy projected demand (1970s). He said TVA has about $30 Billion in debt, mostly from cost overruns or cancellations at nuclear facilities.

He blamed the TVAs over-building on bad Dept of Energy forecasts (I immediately thought of DT Warren's signature).

As a humorous aside, hydro power is no longer their base supply. They can't count on a steady amount of power with all those dams. Seems a bunch of rich folks have built expensive homes all around the artificial lakes they created. And they don't like shorelines with 30 foot drops in their front yards.

[steven]

Originally posted by SolarEclipse
Like I said in the other thread... I want to know if the audit is going to go through still or if this was hush money to make Higgins go away.

Odds are you wont hear another word about. The fix is in, the bribe has been paid, but at least this time we had the big stick.

The school yard bully will just find another way to steal our lunch money though.

[WNYresident]

And let them continue to screw us?

Think about the amount of taxes that are generated on the inflation rip off kilowatt cost.