N.Y. Tax Law § 1210-a: Sales and compensating use tax for purposes of the Suffolk county drinking water protection program

1210-A. Sales and compensating use tax for purposes of the Suffolk

county drinking water protection program. (a) In addition to the taxes

imposed by section twelve hundred ten or any other provision of this

article, the county of Suffolk is hereby authorized and empowered to

adopt and amend a local law, ordinance or resolution imposing within the

territorial limits of said county an additional sales and compensating

use tax at the rate of one-quarter of one percent for the period

beginning December first, nineteen hundred eighty-four and ending

November thirtieth, two thousand sixty, which tax shall be identical to

the tax imposed by said county pursuant to section twelve hundred ten of

this article. Except as hereinafter provided, all provisions of this

article, including the definition and exemption provisions and the

provisions relating to the administration, collection and distribution

by the commissioner, shall apply for purposes of the tax imposed by this

section in the same manner and with the same force and effect as if the

language of this article had been incorporated in full in this section

and had expressly referred to the tax imposed by this section; provided,

however, that any provision relating to a maximum rate shall be

calculated without reference to the additional sales and compensating

use tax herein authorized. For purposes of part IV of this article,

relating to the disposition of revenues resulting from taxes collected

and administered by the commissioner, the additional sales and

compensating use tax herein provided shall be deemed to be imposed under

the authority of section twelve hundred ten of this article and all

provisions relating to the deposit, administration and disposition of

taxes, penalties and interest relating to a tax imposed by a county

under the authority of section twelve hundred ten of this article shall,

except as otherwise specifically provided in this section, apply to the

additional sales and compensating use tax imposed pursuant to this

section.

(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of this article to the

contrary, the net collections from the tax imposed pursuant to

subdivision (a) of this section for the period beginning December first,

nineteen hundred eighty-four and ending November thirtieth, nineteen

hundred eighty-eight shall, upon payment to the county of Suffolk, and

moneys due said fund pursuant to subdivisions (c) and (d) of this

section, be deposited in a special fund, to be designated as an

assessment stabilization reserve fund, to be created by said county

therefor separate and apart from any other funds and accounts of the

county. Moneys in such fund shall be deposited and secured in the manner

provided by section ten of the general municipal law. Pending

expenditure from such fund, moneys therein may be invested in the manner

provided in section eleven of the general municipal law. Any interest

earned or capital gain realized on the moneys so deposited or invested

shall accrue to and become part of such fund. Moneys in said fund may be

appropriated from and transferred to or expended in any fiscal year only

for the purposes and in the order as follows:

(i) to an account or accounts for the Southwest Sewer District of said

county in such amount or amounts as shall be determined by the county

executive of said county and approved by the county legislature of said

county as necessary to stabilize assessments in such sewer district in

any given year;

(ii) to an account or accounts for any other sewer district

established by the county of Suffolk in such amount or amounts as shall

be determined by the county executive of said county and approved by the

county legislature of said county as necessary to stabilize assessments

in any such sewer district in any given year; and

(iii) for distribution to the towns and villages within said county

which have established or created a sewer district or benefitted area to

provide sewer improvements or constructed or are constructing a sewer or

sewerage system in such amount or amounts as shall be determined by the

county executive of said county and approved by the county legislature

of said county as necessary to stabilize assessments or taxes, as the

case may be, in any such sewer district or benefitted area or for any

such sewer system in any given year.

(c) To the extent necessary to continue the tax stabilization of those

sewer districts receiving appropriations pursuant to subdivision (b) of

this section, the net collections from the tax imposed pursuant to

subdivision (a) of this section for the period beginning December first,

nineteen hundred eighty-eight and ending November thirtieth, nineteen

hundred eighty-nine, together with interest thereon at a rate equal to

the interest rate for one year United States Treasury bills as of the

date such funds were invested, shall constitute a guarantee and shall be

made available and paid to the assessment stabilization reserve fund set

forth in subdivision (b) of this section on a first priority basis from

all of the net collections of the tax imposed pursuant to this section.

(d) Notwithstanding any other provision of this article to the

contrary, the net collections from the tax imposed pursuant to

subdivision (a) of this section for the period beginning December first,

nineteen hundred eighty-eight and ending November thirtieth, two

thousand sixty shall, upon payment to the county of Suffolk, be

deposited in a special fund, to be designated as a drinking water

protection reserve fund, to be created by said county therefor separate

and apart from any other funds and accounts of the county. Moneys in

such fund shall be deposited in one or more of the banks or trust

companies designated, in the manner provided by law, as a depository of

the funds of such county. Pending expenditure from such fund, moneys

therein may be invested in the manner provided in section eleven of the

general municipal law. Any interest earned or capital gain realized on

the moneys so deposited or invested shall accrue to and become part of

such fund. Moneys in said fund may be appropriated from and transferred

to or expended in any fiscal year only for the purposes of making

payments pursuant to subdivisions (b) and (c) of this section for the

period beginning December first, nineteen hundred eighty-eight, to the

extent that moneys in said fund are remaining, and if authorized by

local law, for the following purposes:

(i) for the purposes of specific environmental protection (acquisition

of: farmland development rights; open space, wetlands, woodlands, pine

barrens and other lands for passive recreational uses; lands for hamlet

greens, hamlet parks, pocket parks, historic parks, cultural parks and

other lands for active/parkland recreational uses; lands necessary for

maintaining and protecting the quality of surface water, groundwater and

coastal resources);

(ii) for a water quality protection and restoration program or

programs and land stewardship initiatives;

(iii) for the purposes of county-wide property tax protection; and

(iv) for the purpose of sewer taxpayer protection (25% of the net

collections from the tax). Beginning with the first fiscal year after

the adoption of the water quality restoration fund, a portion of the net

collections of such tax apportioned for this purpose as provided for

herein, shall be transferred to the water quality restoration fund,

established pursuant to subdivision eleven of section two hundred

fifty-six-b of the county law. Said revenues shall be dedicated solely

to funding individual septic system projects as defined in such

subdivision. The portion of net collections of the tax transferred to

the water quality restoration fund each year shall be as follows:

Year Percentage

1 5%

2 5%

3 5%

4 5%

5 20%

6 30%

7 40%

8 50%

9 70%

10 70%

For all subsequent years, the portion of net collections transferred to

the water quality restoration fund shall be fifty percent.

Notwithstanding any special or local law, resolution or charter

provision to the contrary, moneys in said fund which have not been

appropriated from and transferred to or expended in any fiscal year for

the purposes of making payments pursuant to subdivisions (b) and (c) of

this section, may alternatively be appropriated for the purposes of

paying debt service on any new indebtedness incurred after the effective

date of the chapter of the laws of two thousand one that enacted this

paragraph pursuant to the local finance law in order to effectuate the

purposes described in paragraph (i) or (ii) of this subdivision. For the

purpose of allocating moneys in said fund pursuant to local law among

the purposes described in paragraphs (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv) of this

subdivision, moneys applied to the payment of debt service under the

authority of the previous sentence shall be considered by said county to

have been expended for the purposes for which such indebtedness was

incurred.