Thiele warns of downward trend in CPF money
A release of the Community Preservation Fund (CPF) revenues for the past seven months continues to show Shelter Island in a downward trend, reflecting a weak housing sales market.
The Island has brought in $920,000 in CPF money, the 2 percent tax paid by new home buyers and used to preserve land here.
That’s down by 20 percent from the $1.15 million for the first seven months of 2015. And last year was a slow one for Shelter Island house sales compared with the previous year.
The figures were released by Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr. (I-Sag Harbor) who commented that while the fund has brought in $1.149 billion to East End towns since its inception in 1999, overall revenues for all municipalities are down by 5.7 percent from the same period in 2015.
“This marks the fifth consecutive month that CPF revenues are less than the same month in 2015,” Mr. Thiele said. “While CPF revenues are on pace to exceed $90 million for the year, the towns should take note of this downward trend.”
It’s the first time in his regular reports on CPF revenues that he has issued such a warning.
Only two East End towns have numbers reflecting an improvement in CPF revenues when compared to the money that came in for the same seven months of 2015.
East Hampton showed an increase of 9.5 percent, bringing in $18.87 million compared with $17.23 million for the same period last year.
Southold is up slightly by 0.9 percent, with $3.22 million coming into its coffers in the past seven months as compared with $3.19 million for the first seven months of 2015.
Southampton’s CPF revenues are down by 13.3 percent, garnering $30.12 million as compared with $34.73 million last year.
Riverhead is down by 7.9 percent, bringing in $1.74 million this year as compared with $1.89 million last year.
