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Town & County Briefs

Trustees regain historic power

The Southampton Town Board last week acknowledged the town’strustees’ sole authority to set shellfish permit fees. The actionunderscores how seriously East Enders take their over 300-year-oldpatent rights. Those rights are also the basis for a current courtaction by East End towns to exempt themselves from a recentlyenacted state law requiring state licenses for recreational marinefishermen.

State law requires town boards to obtain trustee consent beforeenacting shellfish laws. Councilman Jim Malone, an attorney, andliaison between the Town Board and the trustees, believesSouthampton’s founding documents vested that authority solely inthe trustees. His resolution to acknowledge that authority wasintroduced in January and was the subject of a public hearingearlier this month. Trustee President Jon Semlear was pleased withthe outcome, saying, “It will give us the flexibility we need. Weappreciate the board’s consideration of this legislation.

MTA protest planned for Friday

Elected leaders, business owners and residents are planning togather in Riverhead on Friday to call for the elimination of theMetropolitan Transit Authority’s payroll tax and to protestproposed LIRR service cuts between Ronkonkoma and Greenport. StateSenator Ken LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) is hosting the event,scheduled for 10:30 a.m. outside Digger O’Dell’s restaurant and baron West Main Street.

The MTA has come under fire by East End media outlets, officialsand residents alike for proposing to eliminate rail service to theNorth Fork except for summer weekends – just months after imposingmandatory payroll taxes on all businesses in New York City and itssurrounding counties, including Suffolk.

Governor David Paterson last week proposed reducing the payrolltax, which forces businesses to pay 34 cents to the MTA for every$100 spent on payroll, to 17 cents for counties outside New YorkCity, but local officials said that plan wasn’t good enough.

Mr. LaValle and Assemblyman Fred Thiele (I-Sag Harbor) recentlyintroduced legislation that would eliminate the tax in BrookhavenTown and the five East End towns. In addition, Mr. LaValle, Mr.Thiele and Assemblyman Marc Alessi (D-Wading River) have introducedlegislation that would allow the public to consider creating aPeconic Bay Regional Transportation Authority to replace theMTA.