Bellone's Push For Proposition 2 Has Residents Divided

SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — As voters head to the polls Tuesday, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone has urged voters to "flip your ballots and vote Proposition 2."

Prop 2 is a charter law that would potentially transfer excess funds in the Sewer Assessment Stabilization Reserve Fund to the Suffolk County Taxpayer Trust Fund. In addition, it would eliminate the requirement that requires interfund transfers be made from the general fund to the Sewer Assessment Stabilization Fund.

If approved, it would mean $44,409,109 will be transferred to the taxpayer fund in either the 2020 or 2021 fiscal year. That would include $29,409,109 that was required to be paid in a settlement to the Sewer Assessment Stabilization Reserve Fund. In 2019, Justice Joseph Farneti made the ruling in the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, Inc. v. County of Suffolk case.

The Sewer Assessment Stabilization Reserve Fund contains an excess balance to stabilize sewer district tax rates. Once transferred to the Suffolk County Taxpayers Trust Fund, the funds will be used to reduce or stabilize general property taxes and/or police/public safety property taxes.

For months, Bellone has advocated for the measure to close the looming budget gap.

In July, Bellone began sounding the cry for fiscal relief. Suffolk County, he said, is in a state of "financial emergency" as it staggers under the weight of the "catastrophic" coronavirus crisis.

Initially, Bellone urged the Suffolk County Legislature to move forward with two bills that he said would be put to voter referendum and could help close a potentially devastating $1.5 billion budget hole.

Bellone has stated emphatically that the federal government needs to step up with aid as Suffolk County confronts "catastrophic, cataclysmic numbers — beyond anything we have ever seen or anticipated."

Bellone said a meeting of the legislative budget committee was held and a report given by the non-partisan budget review office that "laid out, in stark detail, the emergency this county is facing from the impacts of COVID-19."

The report, he said, indicated that Suffolk County was facing an $800 million budget hole. Over the next 15 months, he said, the county is staring at a gaping $1.1 billion to $1.5 billion budget gap. He said it's time for the federal government to act.

"Our immediate need is $1 billion in federal relief," he said.

While that amount won't solve all the problems and tough choices will need to be made, the funding "will prevent the worst impacts from COVID-19 from happening," Bellone said.

Those impacts, Bellone said, will be borne by taxpayers, essential employees and first responders, who will have to cover the cost of the pandemic response.

Still, immediate action needs to be taken, Bellone has said. To that end, he said the county's budget office has put aside and embargoed $29 million in funding from various departments; resolutions were also put forward to mitigate impacts totaling $77 million.

One bill withdrawn

Initially, Bellone presented two bills. The first was a bill that would "repurpose tax stabilization funds," Deputy Executive Peter Scully said. Currently, he said, under Suffolk County charter, a quarter percent of sales tax is divided for tax stabilization, open space preservation and water quality. With voter approval, the bill would have allowed the county to reduce the percentage of funding in the open space part of the fund and increase it in the tax stabilization portion, to "protect taxpayers with no negative impact on the environment."

Bellone withdrew that bill in July.

Also in July, the Suffolk County Legislature voted to allow the second bill to go to public referendum, which is what voters are weighing in on this Election Day.

What is Proposition 2?

Proposition 2 involves an assessment stabilization reserve fund that stabilizes sewer taxes for Suffolk County residents who live in sewer districts. If residents face a tax increase of greater than 3 percent, the reserve fund is used to hold down the rate, Deputy County Executive Peter Scully said.

"But everyone knows it is overfunded," he said. Suffolk County has, in the past, voted to utilize excess funding from the assessment stabilization reserve fund. "The proposed use is not a new concept. What is new is that the voters will decide whether repurposing funding" to protect against the impacts of the coronavirus is a good idea, he said.

The proposition asks voters to decide if excess funding of $15 million should be used to "help plug the coronavirus gap," Scully said. The bill would also ensure that, if the measure was approved, there would still be an adequate amount of funding to meet the stated goal of stabilizing sewer taxes, Scully said. "It seems fairly simple. It is overfunded, there is excess sitting there that is of no real benefit to taxpayers," Scully said. "This would allow it to be used to stabilize county finances in the face of a dire situation."

Even with federal help, which Bellone has said he hoped would be coming soon, the county faces significant fiscal challenges.

"Hundreds of millions of dollars over the next couple of years that we're going to have to deal with," Bellone said. "And that means we have to make some tough decisions. But in terms of tough choices, this is honestly, this is not a tough choice. This is easy. It literally has no impact on taxpayers, no negative impact on taxpayers, essential employees, or on any governmental program. That is the lowest of lowest hanging fruit that we possibly have to choose from. Everything else we do, will be more painful than that."

But not all agree: Environmentalists have been crying out against Proposition 2. Adrienne Esposito, executive director for Citizens Campaign for the Environment, posted about the measure on social media.

"What is Proposition 2?" she wrote. The measure, she said, allows Suffolk County "to raid our Drinking Water Protection Program to fill a short-term budget gap."

That program, she said, improves sewer infrastructure; fights nitrogen pollution; protects shorelines; ensures safe drinking water; and is supported by over 85 percent of voters.

She added, "Prop 2 is an anti-environmental ballot initiatives that puts our water at risk."

Bellone, meanwhile, has emphasized that if the proposition was approved, there would still be an adequate amount of funding for stabilizing sewer taxes.