I am writing to add my voice to the many LIPA ratepayers calling for a review of Long Island Power Authority's business practices, especially in light of the recent hike in the surcharge.

To be honest, I just became aware of the infamous "surcharge" with my January 2006 bill. Thinking it was a simple adjustment, I did not inquire about it. Then, when it showed up again on my February bill, I called LIPA and was told that it was a 49 percent fuel adjustment surcharge "to cover the higher prices LIPA was paying for fuel." The lady at customer service didn't think it was funny when I suggested that maybe they should let me buy their fuel for them, since the price I was paying to heat my home hadn't gone up at all during the same period. But when she told me that the surcharge would be appearing on my bills "indefinitely," I hit the roof. I immediately called the Public Service Commission. Not surprisingly, I learned that "LIPA is a tax-exempt New York State public authority...[and]...its electric rates, services and practices are not subject to the jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission (Public Authorities Law, Section 1020.s)." The PSC referred me to the 15-member LIPA board. In other words, I was being told to take my complaint to the fox about my missing chickens.

Angered by all this, I checked further and found that the surcharge and LIPA practices in general have been an issue for quite some time. A July 19, 2004 article in Newsday titled, "A History of Calls for Change" says from their start, authorities have always held great potential for abuse. In fact, at a news conference in Albany, April 2004, State Comptroller Hevesi and Attorney General Spitzer said that they were backing legislation intended to reform the state's 212 authorities, which by one measure have piled up more than $114 billion in debt while operating without adequate oversight (The Communicator June 2004). One critic, Assemblyman Richard Brodsky (D-Hartsdale) has been quoted as saying the system "needs to be junked." As a Nassau County resident subject to exorbitant taxes and budget busting utility rates, I can't help but feel that the unilaterally levied surcharge is but one example of this abuse, which by the way has grown by more than 800 percent since it was introduced in March 2001 (Newsday "LIPA in Hot Seat" February 26, 2006). Yet the Long Island Power Authority will tout that it is holding the line against "rate hikes." In fact, with 34 contracts valued at $5.4 billion, LIPA is the single largest "Authority" in the state, with the second biggest "operator" being the New York City Transit Authority/Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority with 1,922 contracts valued at $1.6 billion (Newsday July 19, 2004). With that kind of clout, you can fight city hall. Heck, you could probably buy it too.

All of this brings up the matter of the Nassau Sewer and Storm Water Authority. It was in the Aug. 15, 2003 issue of The Roslyn News that I wrote a letter to the editor about the then-proposed Authority, asking "Question #2: How can instituting an autonomous "Authority" that is accountable to, and regulated by nobody, be in the interest of the general public? Quoting from the bill: 'Neither the public service commission nor any other board or commission of like character nor any municipality of state agency, shall have jurisdiction over the authority in the management and control of its properties or operations or any power over the regulation of rates fixed or charges collected by the authority." Well, the outcome two years hence is known, and we have the Nassau Sewer and Storm Water Authority. Although the final version of what was being sought then has been referred to as a "watered down" version of the original proposal, it is an authority nonetheless. And when that piper starts asking for his pay, it would behoove all taxpayers that can hear his tune to listen very carefully. In the meantime, we have a more immediate problem. First, how to deal with LIPA if it's not subject to real oversight: that is, if the abusers are also the regulators. Second, what could the Public Service Commission do even if it did agree to review LIPA's practices as has been suggested? Third, how to contend with the monster that is here and now, so we might learn how to deal with the one that's looming. After all, it is a sad day in Mudville when legal action is the only recourse left for people trying to deal with a governmental body that was supposedly created for the public good.

Nurhan Hamarat