Sanford NY Town Board meeting Nov 13th 2012 ( 11/13/2012 ) Tax cap raised
Channel: Leland T Snyder
Date: 22/11/2012

This is the November 13th town board meeting of the town of Sanford New York.
Obviously expenses do go up, but it's strange beyond belief (for me) that taxes are raised and there is absolutely no absolute understanding of tax revenue from the Bluestone pipeline.  Why would the state not assist in the assessment?   I do not understand, from what I hear the Millennium pipeline expansion was done under a "pilot program" by the state, and that means if I understand what is being said here that there is no tax revenue from that either.  In addition, Bluestone applied for "lightened regulatory regime" which it received in addition to it's "Grant of Public Convenience".  My understanding of the grant of "lightened regulatory regime" is that the state will not consider it a monopoly, so they can set the price spread as they wish between what they will pay for ATW (i.e. At The Wellhead ) price, and what they sell it to the mainline for.  Again, if I understand correctly, once this grant is  given,I am not sure how anyone will be able to determine the spread.  There is a outstanding DPS request for a public hearing on the pipeline, yet no judgement has been made for this yet.

It is very hard to find out what is going on at the DPS, at their "commissioner" meetings  they talk on and on about delivering cheap gas to others, but for me it has been impossible to talk to any of them.  Last time I called to talk to a commissioner I talked to their secretary, she thought for a moment and then asked, "do you work for Bluestone?". I said no and then after being put on hold was told I could talk to the DPS PR rep. 

Here is a link to the DPS, if you learn anything, please let us know here.
http://www.naruc.org/commissions/default.cfm?s=ny

Here is the interview I was granted with the DPS it was the DPS rep explaining why we would receive no public hearing and why no public notice was given in the local paper.  When the town board announced the Bluestone pipeline was "approved" in October, it turns out it was not approved.  What happened was one commissioner approved for submission to the full board for approval on Sept 21st.  Then on October 19th, the full commission voted and the commissioners approved unanimously.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihgJUbten-c&feature=plcp

Finally, Bluestone is suppose to be a sub-company of DTE Energy as I understand it, and DTE Energy owns a 40% stake in the Millennium pipeline.  If they were able to get a "pilot project" tax exemption for the Millennium pipeline expansion, why should we expect any less from their ( supposedly wholly owned subsidiary ) Bluestone pipeline.