Report: New York Power Authority spent $400k on pilots, aviation director

ALBANY — The New York Power Authority spent nearly $400,000 on pilots and an aviation director during the 2012 fiscal year while maintaining its own plane, according to a report Thursday from the state Comptroller’s Office.

The White Plains-based authority has three full-time pilots on staff and spent an additional $155,000 on two travel department workers last year, the report found. The authority has also “made use of chartered air services and contracted for temporary pilot services” despite owning its own plane, according to the Comptroller’s Office.

At the same time, the authority continues to subsidize New York's budget, with a $90 million payment headed from NYPA to the state's coffers this year, bringing the total to more than $1.2 billion over the last decade.

Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli on Thursday questioned whether the authority, which provides low-cost power from its 16 power plants to mostly businesses and utilities, could do more to help ratepayers by focusing on its core mission.

“New Yorkers pay some of the highest electricity rates in the country and need the rate relief that NYPA could provide if it appropriately focused its resources,” DiNapoli said in a statement.

A spokeswoman from the Power Authority declined to provide immediate comment.

In the past, the authority has defended its need to have a plane because they need to travel to power plants around the state, which includes the state's largest power-generation station -- a hydropower plant near Niagara Falls.

Aircraft owned by NYPA has received significant scrutiny over the years, including an unusual arrangement in the late 1990s and early 2000s that allowed for the shared ownership of a plane by the authority and State Police.

After a Comptroller's Office audit questioned the arrangement in 2001, the aircraft was transferred to the State Police in 2006.

In 2007, a second plane was sold to a private entity, and a new plane was purchased for a "reported contract value" of $6.4 million, according to the report. Then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo launched an investigation in 2008 over the use of NYPA aircraft and why it was used to transport governors and top police officials.

DiNapoli's office also questioned the authority's payroll.

In all, 35 percent of the authority’s workers earn more than $100,000 annually, according to the report. Statewide, 14 percent of public authority staffers earn that much.

NYPA employs 1,636 full- and part-time employees with a total payroll of $146.3 million, according to the report.

Source:   http://www.pressconnects.com