Sales tax

Prop Two authorizes a 1/8-cent sales tax to provide revenue for the Water Quality Improvement Program. It will help hundreds of thousands of Suffolk homeowners upgrade their outdated septic systems and deserves our support.

Clean water should not be a partisan issue, and leaders should not pit communities against one another. Instead of putting politics over people, let the public decide for themselves. 

Legislation authorizing a county-wide wastewater management district in Suffolk and an additional 1/8-cent sales tax to finance a water quality restoration fund was enacted this week in Albany.

An extension of the Drinking Water Protection Program to 2060, with a 1/8-penny sales tax increase would provide $3.1 billion to reduce nitrogen pollution by funding replacement of conventional cesspools/septic systems with advanced onsite treatment systems.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone has called a special meeting of the legislature for Tuesday, July 28, to consider and vote on IR 1413, which would allow a larger portion of county sales tax revenues to be directed to the county’s taxpayer trust fund rather than the environmental trust fund for a three-year period. The measure will require voter approval in November.

Riverhead Town missed a March 31 county filing deadline to be eligible for $1.7 million in sales tax revenues to fund town police services in 2019. The county legislature accepted the late filing at its Sept. 4 meeting.

Suffolk County officials yesterday announced a three-year agreement that will increase sales tax revenues for town and village police agencies by $6 million. Riverhead will see an extra $178,900 in 2015 — money which has already been spent in the town's adopted budget.