Sales Tax Increase for Sewers Put on Hold

The question of increasing the sales tax to pay for cesspool upgrades and sewer construction won’t be on the November 7 ballot as Suffolk legislators want to go back to the drawing board to create a plan that funnels more money to public sewers and less to private septic systems.

Drafted by county Executive Steve Bellone and approved by the state legislature, the plan would have also consolidated all of the county’s sewer districts into one unit. Legislators were looking to schedule a December referendum on a new plan, which came with an eighthof-a-cent sales tax increase but did not take any action at their meeting last week. Members of the Republican majority were looking for commitments from the state to weigh the funding formula, which was 75%-25% in favor of private cesspools, more heavily toward sewers.

Protecting drinking water and the island’s waterways has been an ongoing public concern as the population increases and water quality deteriorates. Sewer proponents argue that sales tax and other funds would have a greater impact, especially in Suffolk’s more densely populated areas, than upgrading private systems. The need to reverse nitrogen pollution is a key component of the county’s $4 billion Subwatersheds Wastewater Plan and the major impediment in getting projects off the ground has been funding.

The issue has become a political hot potato in the upcoming election with Democrats castigating their rivals for holding up the measure. “The Republican-controlled legislature has dropped the ball, and we’ll make sure voters remember this come November,” said Rich Schaffer, Chairman of the Suffolk County Democratic Committee. Others said not so fast. “It’s not the time to make taxing and financial decisions, it’s just not,” said Legislator Leslie Kennedy (R-Smithtown). “We can hold off for a few months.” Chiming in with the Democrat chairman in a joint statement was Dave Calone, the Democrat candidate for Suffolk executive, who said, “It is deeply frustrating to see Suffolk Republicans repeatedly fail our communities on this issue that really should not be partisan. Clean water is crucial to the health of our families, the lifeblood of our economy, and central to our way of life.”

His opponent, Brookhaven Supervisor Edward Romaine, hit back at the Democrats, saying Bellone negotiated the funding formula in Albany on his own without a home rule message from the legislature. “Bellone short-circuited the legislature, and that was a mistake,” said Romaine, who was in favor of putting the measure on the November ballot but looks forward to working out a plan that satisfies all of the lawmakers. “Creating dissension is the wrong approach,” he said, noting a lawsuit by the Pine Barrens Society that may result in Suffolk being forced to pay back $200 million in environmental monies that were diverted from the county’s existing quarterpercent sales tax program. “We need sewers in densely populated areas,” Romaine stated. “Innovative-Alternative systems for cesspools are good but they're scattered—they don't have the impact that a sewer does on a densely populated area. We need to work out a plan that gives us the best value for our tax dollars.”

County Comptroller John Kennedy reported that the Bellone administration diverted about $60 million per year from the quarter percent fund to balance his budgets. “That’s $600 million that could have gone to the preservation of the aquifer, and he put it towards paying payroll and light bills,” Kennedy said, adding, “You’re seeing the last gasp of two decades worth of Democrat malfeasance and benign neglect.”

The Comptroller also took exception to combining all of the county’s different sewer districts together, saying it wouldn’t be fair to have residents who pay a low rate in their area now be responsible for helping fund a more expensive district. According to Kennedy, a combined district would affect the valuations of the existing districts and make it problematic for the county to borrow against them when they need to raise funds for district operations.