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.