The city’s grand list of taxable property will be completed and officially signed in one week. The largest unknown is how much taxable revenue will eventually come from the West End garbage-to-energy plant that serves the region. The city has been in a nearly decade-long court battle with the company that runs it. And a recent Connecticut Supreme Court move has kicked the assessment issue back to the lower court for a decision. CT Post reporter Hugh Bailey sorts through the garbage battle.
“The city’s $450 million valuation is more than five to 10 times the assessed value of Connecticut’s five other waste-to-energy plants. It is five times the city’s assessment of the Bridgeport PSE&G power plant, which is less than two miles away from the facility and produces nearly eight times more electricity,” the company argued in a legal brief.
According to the city, the question mostly comes down to semantics.
“These properties are very difficult to fairly value,” Liskov said. “There are only a handful in the country, and only a handful of appraisers who value them.”
The city has said Wheelabrator exhibited a lack of understanding as to how municipal taxes are set. “Until all assessments are determined and the tax rate is established, property taxes … cannot be projected,” its lawyers argued to the Supreme Court. “How could the city respond to Wheelabrator’s inquiries in 2007 or 2008 about the projected amount of taxes it would pay starting July 1, 2009?”
Full story here.
Seems timely for the CT Post to focus a spotlight on the tax assessment of the City’s current largest taxpayer. Arguments in courts superior, appeal, and CT Supreme Court have been ongoing for 7-8 years and there may be additional cases on the sidelines waiting for a court date at this moment.
What is at stake here? A purposeful choice by the City eight years ago to selectively use this new taxpayer (changed from the CRRA payment in lieu of taxes) to a private entity to assist it in meeting its necessary taxable Grand List total to meet its then budget? Or was it some combination of difficult valuation and few competent authorities and time? There have been trials, decisions and depositions but all the content has not yet come out in court as to the initial assessment(s) and how they came to be. And has any one looked at the legal expense bills generated by the City in maintaining the issue in the courts? How welcome does Wheelabrator feel in the City as the #1 taxpayer? Will the continuing court action have any effect on the PSEG plan to build a $500 Million gas plant in terms of valuations? Are Russ Liskov, a City Attorney, and if interviewed, the counsel from Pullman Comley who handle this matter for the City the only people who can or should explain the bottom-line alternatives facing City taxpayers at the moment? Is the continuation of the case in court rather than settlement in the long-term interest of the City? Should the City Attorney or the Mayor weigh in on this issue? Time will tell.
JML has been alerting city council members on this issue for years. I wonder how often the Finch administration updated them, and in effect, citizens, about the impact of these pending decisions? As JML noted, PSEG (and others) is likely watching very closely. Let’s hope G2 will be open about sharing updates. As JML says, time will tell.
Should go back to PILOT and the State of Connecticut should levy a .X% levy on state income tax, call it the Aid To Distressed City (aka BRIDGEPORT).
I must say Wheelabrator could have made Bridgeport look like real fools if they wanted to by embarrassing the City in the media. Now the real story is coming out and wow!!! Time will tell (JML).
All of us need to know more about valuations and assessments at 70% of fair and just valuations. Each part of how the numbers are produced and used must be understood. For my purpose today I refer to Principal Property Taxpayers on page 112 of CAFR 2015 and page 101 of CAFR 2014.
In the article above the former CRRA site on Howard Avenue, Bridgeport is described as one entity, but for our purposes and the list of significant taxpayers, you need to combine LINE 1 CRRA/US BANK NAT ASSOC JAMES E MORGAVERO and LINE 8 Wheelabrator BPT LP to total in excess of $323 Million in 2015 down from almost $344 Million in 2014. (Let me guess that depreciation is responsible for this year-on-year difference.)
The “top 10” taxpayers really are nine entities whose combined assessments were $915 Million last year and grew to almost $949 Million in 2015 despite depreciation. In both years although values changed, the Wheelabrator property and equipment assessments represent 33% or greater of the top tier taxpayers. And they have been in court for tax years going back to 2007 with more cases to come and, if you read the results or opinions on the various cases, to this “non-lawyer reader” the facts and decisions, slice by slice, for the City as HOME TEAM do not seem to be going well. Why doesn’t somebody at the top of our heap, legal or executive, speak to the issue and provide a rationale for continued fighting in court rather than working out a favorable settlement with a long-term view? We need somebody to handle the region’s waste, to turn waste into energy, to attempt to be profitable as a private company and be taxed, etc. We also need fair taxation. Can the HOME TEAM sit down and work things out? Or do we increase legal expense and the toll of added interest expense when ultimate decisions turn out less favorable to the City than “HOPED FOR.” Time will tell.
Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch wanted to give developers 40-year tax abatements and now we find out what is going on with Wheelabrator and who will suffer, the Bridgeport taxpayers.
JML wrote, “speak to the issue and provide a rationale for continued fighting in court rather than work out a favorable settlement with a long-term view.” No way, that’s too much like doing the right thing.