Suffolk officials have done their part, and now it’s up to the voters to approve a sales tax increase to fund a long-range plan to protect the county’s water through massive investments in sewers and private cesspool upgrades.
Surrounded by a coalition of interests supporting the effort—elected officials from both sides of the aisle, environmentalists, and business and labor leaders—County Executive Ed Romaine signed the bill necessary for a November 5 referendum. “This is now in the hands of the people, as it should be,” Romaine said in Hauppauge . “Clean water is critical for the future of Long Island.”
Key to Suffolk’s Comprehensive Water Resources Management Plan is raising the sales tax by an eighth of a cent to generate recurring funds. This will put the county in a better position to vie for monies from the state’s $4.2 billion environmental quality bond fund and the $1 trillion federal infrastructure act, Romaine noted. More than $2 billion is expected to be generated over the 35-year life of the sales tax hike.
“This was a long time coming, but we got here,” said Kevin McCaffrey, the presiding officer of the Suffolk Legislature. “There were many opinions on how to do this, but there was only one opinion on the need to save our water.”
Last year, legislators tabled a public vote on a plan that would have devoted 75% of the sales tax revenue to residential cesspools, with the rest going to sewer projects. The measure signed by Romaine has the split at 50-50. Voters will also be asked to create a countywide sewer district by combining the existing districts into one.
“The single concept of clean water unites all of us,” declared Assemblyman Fred Thiele, who carried the legislation in Albany to make the referendum possible. “We are certainly a unique coalition.”
“This initiative is unmatched by any county in America,” stated Kevin McDonald of the Nature Conservancy. “This is our promise to future generations for clean water, shellfish, finfish—everything Long Island has to offer,” he said, pointing out that the natural systems will recover once the “offending influence” of nitrogen is removed. Local waters have long been bedeviled by toxic algae blooms and other problems caused by nitrogen in human waste, a problem the commitment to new sewers and upgraded septic systems aims to address.
The coalition is committed to a massive public education effort to get out the vote for the initiative, according to Adrienne Esposito of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment. “We will put clean water into the hands of the voters,” Esposito said. “We don’t want to be the septic capital of the world.”
Also attending the bill signing ceremony were Suffolk Legislators Trish Bergin, Stephanie Bontempi, Tom Donnelly, Steve Englebright, Rebecca Sanin, Catherine Stark, Dominick Thorne, and Ann Welker. They were joined by Kevin McCallister of Defend H2O, the Seatuck Environmental Association’s John Turner, Peconic Baykeeper Pete Topping, and Marc Herbst, president of the Long Island Contractor’s Association.