Construction is moving along at a fast pace
WAWAYANDA – Assemblyman James Skoufis is calling on the Orange County Industrial Development Agency to revoke its payment in lieu of taxes agreement with Competitive Power Ventures if those indicted by the federal government are found guilty.
The company is building a natural gas-powered electric generating plant in Wawayanda.
In a recent letter to IDA Chairman Robert Armistead, Skoufis said that “a former senior vice president at CPV and a former high-ranking state government official have been indicted on charges that allege a conspiracy to defraud the residents of New York State through acts of corruption.”
One of those charges, the assemblyman said, alleges that the CPV official “gave bribes… to influence regulatory approvals and funding related to the development” of a power plant in Orange County.
“The remaining fact is, in my opinion, Orange County taxpayers – local taxpayers – should never be forced to subsidize a corrupt project, and that is what this will be in the defendants are found guilty in this pay-to-play case,” he said.
Skoufis wrote that the allegations raised by the feds “cast the
integrity of the CPV power plant in severe doubt.” He also said that
Millennium Pipeline, which plans to provide the natural gas to the plant,
“has not secured a number of time-sensitive permits that are needed
for the power plant to become operational.”
