Thiele calls for CPF tax to fund water projects

Protected land and pristine water.

Those are two pillars that support the identity of the East End of Long Island. But now both resources are subject to concerned public discussion here. Town officials are looking for ways to put the brakes on large construction projects and the Island’s once pure water is, according to Town Engineer John Cronin,  in crisis mode that is “going to get worse without some radical changes.”

But help might be on the way for getting control of  water resources here. The Community Preservation Fund (CPF), a law passed 16 years ago that has brought in $1 billion dedicated to preserving open space from development in the five East End Towns, including Shelter Island, may soon be used to protect and clean up water.

Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr. (I-Sag Harbor), who sponsored the original CPF legislation 16 years ago, thinks its time to use money collected and solely spent for open space acquisitions, and put some of it to use for water treatment systems and other clean-water projects.

Also known as the “2-percent fund,” the CPF is financed by a 2-percent tax buyers pay on real estate deals, with the first $250,000 of the sale price exempted from the tax. That taxes  collected then goes into the town’s CPF fund and is spent to buy open space parcels and maintaining them.

Mr. Thiele’s plan calls for extending the CPF law’s time frame, originally planned to sunset in 2030, for anther 20 years.

“If we did nothing between now and 2030, we’ll have $1.2 billion more over the next 16 years for land acquisition,” Mr. Thiele said, noting his estimated figures were on the conservative side.

This year the CPF will reap about $90 million, the same as 2013’s total.

With $2.7 billion in funds, Mr. Thiele’s plan is to take up to 10 percent of that figure  for water improvement projects.

“Adding the 20 years, we’ll still have money for land acquisition,” Mr. Thiele said.

The process for the ambitious plan is to reach a consensus among government, civic and business leaders plus environmental groups in the five towns, and then introduce legislation that will call for a referendum on the issue.

The present CPF fund is extremely popular here and in the other towns. The only difficulty would be reaching consensus on details of the plan, Mr. Thiele said.

It’s time for action, the assemblyman added. “The perception and hope was that if we preserved the land, that would also protect the water,” Mr. Thiele said. “That didn’t turn out to be true.”