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CPF revenues dip for Island but increase overall

REPORTER FILE PHOTO The Community Preservation Fund collects taxes on real estate sales to spend on open space aquisitions and water protection programs.
REPORTER FILE PHOTO The Community Preservation Fund collects taxes on real estate sales to spend on open space aquisitions and water protection programs.

Three of the five East End towns are reporting increases in Community Preservation Fund (CPF) revenues for the first nine months of 2017, but Shelter Island and East Hampton are showing decreases.

The money comes from a 2 percent tax on property paid by buyers in the East End towns to purchase open space for preservation and fund water quality improvement projects.

Shelter Island CPF revenues are down 7.4 percent from the same period of 2016, according to numbers released by Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr. (I-Sag Harbor). Revenues for the nine months this year have been $1.26 million as compared with $1.36 million for the same period in 2016, the legislator said.

In East Hampton, where property values tend to be much higher, the CPF revenues were down by 11 percent this year, dropping from $21.56 million for the first nine months of 2016 to $19.18 million for the same period this year.

On the positive side, CPF revenues increased overall by 3.5 percent, jumping to $71.34 million this year as compared with $68.9 million for the same period last year.

That’s because Southold, Southampton and Riverhead all showed increases this year.

Southold CPF revenues were up 21.3 percent, growing from $4.6 million last year to $5.58 million this year. Southampton revenues increased by 10.2 percent from $38.93 million in 2016 to $42.9 million this year. In Riverhead, the increase was 1.2 percent, going from $2.44 million in 2016 to $2.47 million this year.

Since the inception of the program in 1999, CPF revenues have totalled $1.258 billion.

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