Schneiderman: East End towns shortchanged millions in county sales tax revenues for police departments

Legislator Jay Schneiderman is a man on a mission.

“If there’s one thing I accomplish before I leave, this is it,” the term-limited Second District county legislator, now mid-way through the first year of his sixth and last term, said in an interview this month.

“It” is parity in Suffolk County sales tax revenue sharing for police departments in the five East End towns.

The East End towns, which operate and fund their own police departments using local property taxes, were supposed to receive a fair allocation of revenues from an increase in the county sales tax rate set aside by state law to fund public safety, Schneiderman says. But the state law authorizing the sale tax rate hike did not distinguish between the county police department and the East End town departments — or the many village police departments throughout the county. It simply said, “dedicated for public safety purposes.”

Initially, the sales tax revenues were distributed on a per-capita basis, with the towns and villages getting more than 10 percent of the “public safety” sales tax revenues. But since 1998, distribution of the sales tax revenues has been anything but fair, Schneiderman argues, with the county police department getting a disproportionate share of the revenues. And in recent years, the disparity has grown worse, he says, sinking to 7 percent in County Executive Bellone’s 2014 budget. In contrast, the population of the towns and villages that maintain their own police departments represents 10.97 percent of the county’s total population.

Over the years the five East End towns have collectively been shortchanged nearly $57.4 million, Schneiderman calculates — some $18.5 million since 2005 — because the county is not distributing the public safety sales tax revenues to the East End towns on a per-capita basis. In 2014 alone, Riverhead Town should have gotten nearly half a million dollars more in public safety sales tax revenue than it received, according to Schneiderman; Southold should have seen almost $386,000 more than it got, he said.

Schneiderman voted against the 2014 budget because of the sales tax inequity issue, he said.

The legislator actually sued the county over it in 2008. He was joined in the suit by then-First District legislator Ed Romaine. He and Romaine soon agreed to drop the suit, however, in a deal struck with the late presiding officer, Bill Lindsay.

“They had us 16 to 2,” Schneiderman said. “They told us if we won the lawsuit, they would change the law.

In subsequent budgets, the county legislature and executive more or less kept the bargain with the East End lawmakers, Schneiderman said, though the towns were still not given their fair share on a per capita basis. Until last year, when the 2014 budget dropped the towns’ revenue share to just 7.3 percent of the police district’s sales tax revenue.

Schneiderman introduced a bill this year to amend the county charter to require adopted budgets to contain fair share payments to municipalities beginning in 2015. It would also require the county to use one-quarter of the 1 percent sales tax for public safety and mandates that the money be used only for police services.

The charter revision would protect the East End towns going forward, Schneiderman said.

But that’s if he can sell it to a majority of the legislators and the county executive — or to enough legislators to override a veto.

“Schneiderman’s bill is dying a slow death in committee,” North Fork legislator Al Krupski said last week. The proposed charter law was tabled by the legislature’s public safety committee on June 12.

“The other legislators tell us that their police costs went up,” Krupski said. “Well ours did, too,” he said. “We shouldnt have to pay for yours. We are already paying for ours.”

Krupski said there is a fundamental error in how the other legislators think about the issue.

“It’s revenue sharing,” Krupski said.

“It’s what rightfully should come to the East End. It’s not the East End getting extra money.”