East End PD’s to get ‘fair shake’ from county taxes

East End police departments and villages across Suffolk County will benefit from a collective $6 million in sales tax revenue over the next three years, thanks to a new agreement announced by County Executive Steven Bellone during a press conference at Southampton Town Hall Wednesday afternoon.

The deal is one step in the right direction for securing a fair split in sales tax revenue for the towns — which aren’t policed by Suffolk County Police Department — a budgeting issue Legislator Jay Schneiderman (I-Montuak), who represents the Island, said he had been working on for more than a decade.

Currently, state law does not outline how revenue earmarked for public safety is to be shared between Suffolk’s departments, with a larger portion of revenue historically being funneled into the Suffolk County Police Department. It leaves East End towns and villages relying mostly on property taxes to fulfill public safety needs, explained Mr. Schneiderman, who drafted the three-year deal with the help of fellow Legislator Al Krupski (D-Cutchogue).

“When they started using sales tax for police, all we wanted was our fair share. It [Suffolk’s percentage] has fluctuated through the years, and we’ve seen up to 5 percent, and one year even zero,” he said. “We all pay sales tax, and we are all struggling to keep our [property] taxes down … The towns rely on their portions of sales tax revenue. All we’ve been asking for is a fair shake.”

Police Chief Jim Read said his department will see an increase of $17,100 from 2014,  for a total of $129,761 in 2015.

“This increase was anticipated and is reflected on the revenue side of the 2015 budget,” Chief Read said.   “This is not found money, but it does help our local taxpayers in controlling operational costs.    The distribution of the $6 million in additional funds between area departments was decided on by the county executive and the county Legislature, Mr. Schneiderman said.

Mr. Bellone called the deal “an issue about fairness and what is the right thing to do.”

Legislator Krupski said he hopes to work with Mr. Bellone on developing a permanent solution to the problem, drafting legislation to quantify how the sales tax revenue is to be distributed throughout all of the county’s departments, so the East End town’s have a dedicated cash flow they can depend on.