Suffolk County's Proposition 2 aims to improve water quality by funding sewers
SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y. - Clean water is on the ballot in Long Island's Suffolk County.
Proposition 2 asks voters to approve a small new sales tax to protect drinking water and waterways.
Suffolk County voters are reminded and urged to turn their ballots over, where they'll find Proposition 2. It aims to set up a new sales tax fund to clean up Suffolk's waterways and drinking water by expanding public sewers and providing grants to homeowners to replace polluting cesspools.
The measure would establish an eighth of a penny increase to the county sales tax, increasing it to 8.75%. On a $100 purchase, that's an extra 12 cents. It would expand and extend the county's current clean water tax to 2060.
Nitrogen from aging septic systems have long been the cause of closed beaches and harmful algal blooms.
From surfers and sailors, boaters to builders, there's wide support.
"We need clean water"
"We must have sewers in Suffolk County. That is job one," Wayne Horsley of Save The Great South Bay said.
"We can't have fishable, swimmable, drinkable water if we don't have clean water," Pete Topping of Peconic Baykeeper said.
"We need 21st-century technology to treat our sewage in Suffolk County, and we have a plan," Adrienne Esposito of Citizens Campaign for the Environment said.
"It is a direct correlation, the cleanliness of the water to the return we get from it," Mike DeAngelis of the West Sayville Boat Basin said.
"I spent 55 years of my life clamming on the Great South Bay. We need clean water," one person said.
"Restaurants can't open the way they want to. Without sewers, they can't run the dishwashers," Eric Alexander of Vision Long Island said.
At Oakdale's Snapper Inn, wastewater has to be regularly pumped out.
"It's more expensive. Sewer would be a game changer for the community and for our restaurants," owner Richard Remmer said.
Suffolk County Legislator Rob Trotta opposes the tax.
"This is one of the most taxed places, and they're doing to ask you for only an eighth of a cent more. The money is there. We have a billion dollar surplus," Trotta said.
Passage of the proposition would also unlock federal and state clean water funding.
The language on the ballot says a no vote continues water quality degradation.
