RSS 2.0 FeedOctober 21, 2010, Cover Stories, Bellmore Life
Raising a ‘stink’ over ‘toilet’ tax
Local officials scrutinize the proposed Nassau County 2011 “sewer fee.”
FLUSH IT! County Legislator Dave Denenberg, along with school and fire officials, meet to scrutinize a county item in its proposed budget they say will cost taxpayers more in the future.
Jay Breakstone, president of the Bellmore-based Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association, and president of the Bellmore School District’s Board of Education, had pointed words for County Executive Ed Mangano’s latest sewage fee increase proposal in the county’s “no tax increase” budget of 2011:
“With this fee, the county is shifting its expenses to other agencies just to make itself look good.”
His comment referred to a press conference held by county Legislator Dave Denenberg and a variety of school and fire officials on Friday at the North Merrick firehouse to scrutinize and denounce what in the proposed Nassau County 2011 budget is being called a “sewer fee.”
The rate of the fee, according to Mr. Denenberg, is one penny per gallon of water entering the county’s sewer system, based on consumption in 2009. The fee, if included in the budget, would take effect July 1, 2011.
Mr. Denenberg said it’s important to note the county can only determine how much water is used by facilities. He said the county cannot monitor the amount that actually goes into the county sewers.
“Calling it a sewer usage fee when all that can be monitored is water usage is unfair,” he said. And he added various water districts provide the water being used, not the county.
To further demonstrate his opposition to this item in the budget, Mr. Denenberg called it a “toilet tax” and, with an actual toilet on hand to drive his point home, said, “If you want to tax the water going into the sewers, then meter the toilets.”
The difference between the amount of water used for organizations such as schools and fire departments, and the amount going into the sewers, Mr. Denenberg said, is substantial.
He pointed out a great deal of the water used by school districts is to maintain playing fields and for cleaning, and fire departments use large amounts of water for both maintenance and fire fighter training.
No changes forthcoming
But in a prepared statement, County Executive Mangano said that Legislator Denenberg claimed his sewer reform plan would tax fire departments for filling up their trucks.
“My reform plan will not charge a single fire department for filling their trucks,” said Mr. Mangano. “In fact, no charges will be applied for the use of any fire hydrant throughout this county.”
School costs could go up
Mary Jo O’Hagan, vice-president of the Nassau Suffolk School Board Association, said the bulk of the school district’s usage of water goes to irrigate playing fields. She said she estimated at the rate now proposed in the budget the fee would equal $132,000 more to her school district in Baldwin.
She said, “That is a ‘two-teacher’ tax.” She explained the district could hire two additional teachers with benefits, for the same amount of money.
Mr. Mangano’s statement continues by saying that “With smart budgeting and responsible management, the county executive’s reform will not cost school districts [and other districts] one penny.”
Mr. Denenberg said this new fee on not-for-profit organizations would eventually be handed down to local taxpayers.
“When you push unfunded mandates on our special districts it is not freezing taxes.” Mr. Denenberg said other not-for-profit organizations likely to feel the impact of this fee if included in the budget are public libraries, hospitals, colleges and universities.
The press statement claims that the proposed 2011 budget reforms Nassau’s Sewer District to stop the over-taxation of homeowners and businesses throughout the county who have been unfairly paying for sewage costs; and that Nassau County is the only county in the state to provide free sewage treatment to not-for-profit organizations, such as hospitals and universities, at the expense of homeowners and businesses.
County voters uniformed?
Yet, Mr. Breakstone told Bellmore Life that the new fee turns on an essential mischaracterization of “county voters as being uniformed.” Nassau is one of the richest counties in the U.S., Mr. Breakstone said, and people know what’s going on with their dollars.
Dr. James Tolle, executive director, Nassau County Counsel of School Superintendents, was on hand to thank Mr. Denenberg for bringing this matter to the attention of the public.
Also joining the legislator at the press conference were Charles Renfroe, school board president of Hempstead Public Schools; David Ward, district clerk, North Merrick Fire District; John Fabian, supervisor, Bellmore Fire District; Tom Bazzicalupo, president Nassau County Library Association; Tom Witt, executive director, North Merrick Library; and Jacquelyn Thresher, director of Nassau Library System—which she explained is not a county association, but a consortium of public libraries and all 54 public libraries are members.
– with additional reporting by Doug Finlay
