“There’s been this insistence [on] refus[ing] to make LIPA a real utility, and the latest version just perpetuates that. LIPA employs an outside, for-profit contractor to carry out most of its operations, and has since day 1. This is totally different than the structure that 2,000 other utilities throughout the country follow. They function as full-service municipal utilities responsible for operations. LIPA has been through three iterations, trying to improve it and deal with the problems. This latest, fourth iteration the governor has proposed is not an outright privatization. It’s a camouflage privatization to try to retain some form of LIPA to have tax-exempt financing and some of the benefits of public power. I don’t think that will work very well. Having gone through this and dealt with the IRS on privatizations for municipal utilities, the IRS just won’t buy the fact that a private entity can benefit from tax-exempt financing.”
—Matthew Cordaro, LIPA trustee
