Island continues to lag in CPF revenues
Shelter Island continues to lag in its Community Preservation Fund revenues based on the latest figures for the first 10 months of 2018.
On the positive side, the lag behind the previous year’s revenues continues to decrease for the third successive month. But the town’s revenues are still 28.1 percent less for the months of January through October than they were for the same period last year.
CPF revenues are based on a 2 percent tax paid by property buyers in all five East End towns and the proceeds are used primarily to fund the purchase of open spaces with up to 20 percent allowed for use in water quality improvement projects.
Shelter Island property purchases netted $970,000 for the first 10 months of 2018 as compared with $1.35 million for the same period last year.
Southampton is the only other East End town showing a lag. It brought in $43.3 million in CPF revenues this year as compared with $47.09 million last year, a drop of 8 percent.
The other three towns all showed increases with Riverhead topping the list at 43.3 percent. Riverhead netted $4.04 million for the first 10 months of this year as compared with $2.82 million last year.
East Hampton increased its CPF revenues by 23.9 percent, bringing in $26.82 million as compared with $21.64 million for those months in 2017.
Southold also increased its CPF revenues, although by a lesser margin of 2.7 percent. It took in $6.14 million for the first 10 months of this year as compared with $5.98 million for the same period last year.
Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr. (I-Sag Harbor), who was instrumental in the late 1990s in implementing the program for the Peconic Bay area, said the total revenues brought in through the end of October are $81.27 million. That tops the $78.88 million that was brought in for the same period in 2017.
October revenues alone totalled $8.31 million, as compared with $7.53 million for October 2017, Mr. Thiele said.
Since its inception, the CPF program has brought in $1.364 billion, he said.
