Island CPF revenues lag for first eight months of 2018
Community Preservation Fund receipts for the first eight months of 2018 are up for most East End towns. But not for for Shelter Island.
Receipts for all five East End towns totalled $66.79 million this year compared to $63.9 million for the same period in 2017, according to Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr. (I-Sag Harbor).
However, August revenues were down overall from $7.07 million last year to $6.43 million this year.
The money is collected from a 2 percent tax paid by buyers of properties in the five East End towns and is used to purchase and preserve open space and use toward water improvement projects.
Shelter Island saw a 35.9 percent decrease from $1.2 million for the first eight months of last year to $770,000 this year.
The other decline, this one down 8 percent, came in Southampton where $38.44 million was collected for the first eight months of last year compared to $35.35 million this year.
The other three East End towns each saw an increase led by Riverhead revenues up by 49.8 percent from $2.15 million in 2017 to $3.22 million this year. East Hampton followed with a 30.5 percent hike from $17.29 million last year to $22.57 million this year.
Southold saw a 1 percent increase from $4.83 million last year to $4.88 million this year.
Since the program began in 1999, receipts have generated $1.3o billion. In the past 12 months, the fund has brought in $98.09 million to East End towns.
