Suffolk County voters will be asked to approve a ballot measure in November to authorize a ⅛-cent county sales tax hike for funding wastewater infrastructure aimed at reducing nitrogen pollution in waterways and groundwater.
County Executive Ed Romaine signed legislation today creating a countywide wastewater management district and authorizing a voter referendum on the ⅛-cent sales tax to fund sewer infrastructure improvements and the installation of advanced septic systems in the county.
A dedicated wastewater infrastructure fund will be established with revenues from the new one-eighth percent sales tax. The fund will be distributed equally between sewage infrastructure improvements and advanced septic system installations.
The new sales tax is expected to generate nearly $3 billion from 2025 to 2060, the length of time that would be authorized by passage of the referendum.
The referendum would also extend the existing ¼% county sales tax that funds the county’s drinking water protection program to 2060. That tax is currently set to expire in 2030.
The legislation signed today was passed by the legislature on June 25.
A state law initially enacted last year authorized the county to establish the wastewater district and approve a referendum on an ⅛-cent sales tax increase. But a pair of bills taking the actions failed to pass the county legislature after Republican county legislators objected to the way the funds would be divided between sewer projects and septic system installations — 75% for septic installations and 25% for sewage infrastructure. The State Legislature this year passed a bill to amend the law enacted last year and the governor signed the bill into law in May.
“The success of this bill is the result of years of partnership and a unified mission to protect Suffolk County now, and into the future,” Romaine said at a bill-signing ceremony today, flanked by Presiding Officer Kevin McCaffrey, State Assemblyman Fred Thiele, members of the legislature, and environmental and labor leaders.
The bill will be on the ballot in the Nov. 5 general election.
“It was an arduous journey to get us here today,” McCaffrey said. “I am proud of my colleagues who stuck it out and believed we could reach a compromise on the right funding formula to protect Suffolk’s water quality for decades to come.”
The initiative grew out of the Suffolk County Subwatersheds Wastewater Plan, which was adopted unanimously by the County Legislature in 2020 after a years-long development and environmental review process. It was hailed by a robust cross-section of environmental, civic and business leaders, who urged county legislators during lengthy public hearings last year to enact the local laws necessary to establish the fund and put the sales tax measure on the ballot.
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