“We Live in an Era of Permanent Fiscal Scarcity”

Recently, the Suffolk County Executive uttered these words to explain the County Health Department’s lack of funding for testing, monitoring and inspections to protect water quality and public health (Newsday, September 9, 2014). On a similar note, Newsday recently published an article detailing Town and Village budget cuts due to a record low Tax Cap (Newsday, September 28, 2015). The Tax Cap limits property tax increases to 2% or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. This year, the tax cap is below 1% (0.73%), its lowest since it was enacted in 2012.

Disturbingly, at the same time there seems to be no limit to the amount of public (taxpayer) money thrown at local developers. The State Department of Transportation is looking to spend potentially hundreds of millions improving Sagtikos Parkway to alleviate the expected traffic from Gerry Wolkoff’s new city – Heartland Town Square, (Newsday September 22, 2015). The County is funding an estimated $20 million dollar expansion of the Bergen Point Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) to accommodate more development, it is seeking hundreds of millions to fund a bus rapid transit system designed to link development projects with workers and it is also studying alternative sewer extension routes to accommodate the proposed megaproject known as the Ronkonkoma Hub.

The “Hub” is a For-Profit private, mixed-use development project involving 1,450 apartment units along with approximately 600,000 square feet of commercial space located adjacent to the Ronkonkoma train station in the Town of Brookhaven. The project, which was recently rezoned by the Town of Brookhaven, was awarded a development density of 48 units per acre – nearly ten times the town-wide average for housing density.

While the staggering level of development density awarded the developer should negate the need for any government assistance, the amount of public subsidy this for-profit project has received during this ‘era of permanent fiscal scarcity’ is nothing short of startling. Thus far, it has received $16 million in tax breaks from the Town of Brookhaven (Newsday September 9, 2014), $2.3 million from Suffolk County for infrastructure improvements (Newsday August 15, 2014), $4 million from the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council to design the proposed sewage treatment plant and $21 million from Suffolk County to construct the plant (Newsday June 5, 2012).

Not to be outdone, New York State has recently proposed approximately $50 million in funding for the project’s parking garage (Newsday January 20, 2015) and Senator Schumer is now calling on the Federal government to provide an additional $13 million in road improvements (Newsday September 18, 2015). Finally, only a week after publishing the tax cap article, Newsday reported about the efforts of a “group of local political and business leaders” which has recommended that the Hub receive an additional $225 million in public subsidies (Newsday, September 25, 2015).

If government doesn’t have enough money to inspect toxic and hazardous waste sites (Newsday, September 9, 2014), hire local police (Newsday, September 28, 2015) or maintain bus routes for those in need (Newsday, September 29, 2015), how can it justify over $350 million in public subsidies to a for-profit private development company?

During an era of permanent fiscal scarcity all public expenditures, particularly private development subsidies, ought to be scrutinized. Newsday’s article provides little background information on this group of “political and business leaders” behind the $225 million other than to say that the Nassau and Suffolk County Executives and the head of the Long Island Association (a business advocacy group) are among its 8 members. There is no mention of how the group was formed, whether its meetings are open to the public, the nature of its mission…etc.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in public subsidies for private development projects with little or no public input during an era of permanent fiscal scarcity is hard to defend. Perhaps, that is why no one knows much about the activities of this group of political and business leaders. In the end, these types of backroom, sweetheart deals only reinforce the public’s perception that not everyone is living in an era of permanent fiscal scarcity.

Dan Gulizio is the Executive Director of Peconic Baykeeper (PBK). PBK is a Not-For-Profit water advocacy organization committed to swimmable, fishable and drinkable water. Dan was previously the Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development for the Town of Islip, the Commissioner of the Department of Planning, Environment and Land Management for the Town of Brookhaven, the Deputy Director of Planning for Nassau County and the Deputy Director of Planning for Suffolk County. Dan is a graduate of Colby College, has a M.S. degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Columbia University and a J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law. Dan has been a resident of the Town of Huntington for over 20 years.