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Vol. 69 No. 16
THE LEADER IN PROP ERTY TAX REDUCT ION
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Maidenbaum Propert y Tax Reduction Gro up, LLC 483 Chestnut Street, Cedarhurst, NY 11516
APRIl 15 - 21, 2021
Helping their neighbors, for Pete’s sake By JENNIFER CoRR jcorr@liherald.com
Courtesy Beth Escobar
DElIVERING EAstER BAsKEts to 75 children with For the Love of Pete’s Pantry were, clockwise from top left, Beth Escobar; Claudia, Daniel and Samantha Brunie; and Nicolas Escobar.
Growing up, sisters Jeanne Rodrigues and Beth Escobar remember their father, Pete Haller, praying for the homeless before family dinners in their New Hyde Park home. Last September — 21 years after he died — Rodrigues, who now lives in southern New Jersey, Escobar, who lives in Seaford, and their friend Claudia Brunie, of Levittown, formed For the Love of Pete’s Pantry in Seaford. “Covid-19 was actually one of the reasons we wanted to
get started right away, because we saw such a great need — not just for people who are homeless, but for our neighbors who suddenly lost a job or wound up in a situation where they couldn’t go to work because of Covid,” Escobar said. “We were seeing friends and neighbors who are struggling, and we just felt we had to do something about this. We had to help.” Seven months after it opened, the pantry has gained nonprofit status, which Escobar said, “opened a lot of doors.” “Our hands were tied Continued on page 3
State study: Public water authority is the best option By ANDREW GARCIA and MIKE CoNN agarcia@liherald.com
According to a recent study ordered by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and conducted by the state Department of Public Service, the municipalization of New York American Water’s Long Island infrastructure is not only feasible, but also in residents’ best interests. NYAW provides water to Wantagh and Seaford. “The study determined that such municipalization is both feasible and, under a variety of scenarios, in the public interest,” the DPS report reads, “even
with an upfront investment of nearly $800 million for the purchase of NYAW’s assets (or a pro rata amount for parts of the system), ongoing and near-term infrastructure improvements and transaction costs.” The study was put in motion by Cuomo in early February, and gave the DPS until April 1 to declare its results. Rory Lancman, the department’s special counsel for ratepayer protection, oversaw the study. The DPS recommended that the State Legislature act quickly to remove the “onerous property tax burden” on NYAW’s ratepayers. Lawmakers had pushed legislation in the state budget that
would provide a path for a public takeover, but it has since been removed and will be legislated separately after the budget stalled in the Assembly, according to Sen. John Brooks, a Democrat from Seaford. If NYAW were granted an exemption from a franchise property tax, lawmakers said, more of a tax burden would be put on ratepayers of other utilities, such as National Grid. “In virtually every other area of the state, water is not taxed at all,” Brooks said. “So, the fact that NYAW was being taxed, we were effectively subsidizing much of the Island by having a tax that no one else had to pay.
It’s how you look at it: The glass is half empty or half full.” “But I don’t think we should ever tax a natural resource that’s required to support life,” Brooks said. “There never should have been a tax on water to begin with.” The legislation also would have established a new public authority, likely called the Nas-
sau County Water Authority, as recommended by the DPS. The Water Authority would have the power to purchase all or parts of NYAW’s assets in the county, or obtain them through eminent domain proceedings. If the authority is established, it could choose to operate the infrastructure itself, conContinued on page 3