ALBANY – The state’s public power company has raised costs for consumers while regularly bailing out the state budget, having a payroll with 35 percent of its staff making more than $100,000 a year and employing three full-time pilots and several travel services workers, the state comptroller said today.
Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli warned that the core mission of the New York Power Authority – assisting with economic development and providing low-cost power from the Niagara and St. Lawrence rivers and other areas – has been weakened by the financial decisions of the agency and the state.
Over the past decade, governors and lawmakers have turned to NYPA’s bank account to provide $1.6 billion to the state’s general fund to help with everything from closing deficits to funding programs the state otherwise might not had enough money to create were it not for the NYPA money.
The core mission of NYPA, created in 1931 as the nation’s largest public utility company, “may be hindered by the state’s repeated use of the authority’s resources for budget relief and other purposes,” a report issued by DiNapoli noted.
NYPA officials did not immediately comment.
NYPA, which had $2.8 billion in annual revenues from its 16 generating facilities – including the Niagara Power project – and the more than 1,400 miles of power transmission lines it owns, has a board of directors, but every governor for decades has ultimately controlled the entity. In this year’s budget, $90 million was moved from NYPA’s budget to the state’s budget.
In all over the past decade, DiNapoli said, 4.2 percent of NYPA’s revenues have gone to helping governors and lawmakers balance the state’s books.
NYPA has endured a long history of criticism over spending practices, and DiNapoli’s new report was no exception. He portrayed it as an agency with a relatively large number of high-paid executives on its 1,636-person payroll. He said the 35 percent making more than $100,000 at NYPA compares to 14 percent of employees at other state authorities topping the $100,000 level. Eight percent of the state government’s workforce makes over $100,000, as does 14 percent of all New Yorkers, he said. At NYPA, 58 people make more than $150,000.
Besides paying into the state pension system on behalf of its employees, NYPA also offers a 401(k) program for which employee contributions are matched in part by the authority. That program alone cost $2.4 million last year.
The staff includes three-full time pilots and three people who coordinate travel plans for NYPA officials. The agency owns one plane, which it purchased in 2007 for $6.4 million.
FlightAware, a flight tracking company, shows that NYPA’s plane, a twin-engine, turbo-prop Beechcraft, had about 325 flights last year. Since July 26, it shows the plane flew 18 times, mostly between the agency’s White Plains headquarters and Niagara Falls, Massena and an airport in Oneida County – airports near NYPA facilities.
DiNapoli noted that NYPA last year received a 10.7 percent increase on its power transmission charge that before the increase brought in $165 million to NYPA. Those charges eventually get passed along to consumers.
“The state regularly relies on NYPA for budget relief, which could pose future challenges for NYPA’s ability to deliver low-cost power,” DiNapoli said in a written statement today. “New Yorkers pay some of the highest electricity rates in the country and need the rate relief that NYPA could provide it if appropriately focused its resources.”
email: tprecious@buffnews.com
Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli warned that the core mission of the New York Power Authority – assisting with economic development and providing low-cost power from the Niagara and St. Lawrence rivers and other areas – has been weakened by the financial decisions of the agency and the state.
Over the past decade, governors and lawmakers have turned to NYPA’s bank account to provide $1.6 billion to the state’s general fund to help with everything from closing deficits to funding programs the state otherwise might not had enough money to create were it not for the NYPA money.
The core mission of NYPA, created in 1931 as the nation’s largest public utility company, “may be hindered by the state’s repeated use of the authority’s resources for budget relief and other purposes,” a report issued by DiNapoli noted.
NYPA officials did not immediately comment.
NYPA, which had $2.8 billion in annual revenues from its 16 generating facilities – including the Niagara Power project – and the more than 1,400 miles of power transmission lines it owns, has a board of directors, but every governor for decades has ultimately controlled the entity. In this year’s budget, $90 million was moved from NYPA’s budget to the state’s budget.
In all over the past decade, DiNapoli said, 4.2 percent of NYPA’s revenues have gone to helping governors and lawmakers balance the state’s books.
NYPA has endured a long history of criticism over spending practices, and DiNapoli’s new report was no exception. He portrayed it as an agency with a relatively large number of high-paid executives on its 1,636-person payroll. He said the 35 percent making more than $100,000 at NYPA compares to 14 percent of employees at other state authorities topping the $100,000 level. Eight percent of the state government’s workforce makes over $100,000, as does 14 percent of all New Yorkers, he said. At NYPA, 58 people make more than $150,000.
Besides paying into the state pension system on behalf of its employees, NYPA also offers a 401(k) program for which employee contributions are matched in part by the authority. That program alone cost $2.4 million last year.
The staff includes three-full time pilots and three people who coordinate travel plans for NYPA officials. The agency owns one plane, which it purchased in 2007 for $6.4 million.
FlightAware, a flight tracking company, shows that NYPA’s plane, a twin-engine, turbo-prop Beechcraft, had about 325 flights last year. Since July 26, it shows the plane flew 18 times, mostly between the agency’s White Plains headquarters and Niagara Falls, Massena and an airport in Oneida County – airports near NYPA facilities.
DiNapoli noted that NYPA last year received a 10.7 percent increase on its power transmission charge that before the increase brought in $165 million to NYPA. Those charges eventually get passed along to consumers.
“The state regularly relies on NYPA for budget relief, which could pose future challenges for NYPA’s ability to deliver low-cost power,” DiNapoli said in a written statement today. “New Yorkers pay some of the highest electricity rates in the country and need the rate relief that NYPA could provide it if appropriately focused its resources.”
email: tprecious@buffnews.com