Shelter Island CPF dollars lagging
While Community Preservation Funds are slightly improved for the first nine months of the year compared with the same period in 2014, Shelter Island is one of three East End towns registering a decline.The money represents a 2 percent tax buyers of East End properties pay and it’s slotted for the purchase and maintenance of open spaces and farmland and, most recently allows towns to allot a small percentage to water quality maintenance.
Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr. (I-Sag Harbor) announced the numbers showing CPF money at $71.86 million for the nine months of 2015, while it totalled $71.82 for the same period last year.
But Shelter Island is still lagging, bringing in $1.41 million this year as compared with $1.52 million at this point last year.
At the same time, Shelter Island real estate professionals last year were looking at similar lagging numbers and said properties had been slow to close. But they correctly predicted that there would be a turn around in the fourth quarter.
The other two East End towns where CPF numbers are lagging last years third-quarter totals are:
• East Hampton at $20.56 million, down by 3.7 percent from last year’s $21.36 million
• Riverhead at $2.47 million, down 6.8 percent from last year’s $2.65 million
Conversely, Southampton is showing a 1.8 percent increase for the nine months of this year at $43.01 million up from $42.24 million last year; and Southold is up 8.9 percent at $4.41 million from last year’s $4.05 million
The CPF numbers in 2014 were the highest in the history of the program, Mr. Thiele said.
