Vote ‘Yes’ on the ‘Bond Act’
The Bond Act represents an enormous positive for our region and community as a whole. The $4.2 billion bond act would allocate funding toward projects in the following areas: restoration and flood risk reduction, open space land conservation and recreation, climate change mitigation, water quality improvement and resilient infrastructure.
It does not take the anniversary of ‘Superstorm Sandy’ to understand the importance of these goals. Every year, and for some Long Islanders regularly, flooding, water quality and other issues covered by the aforementioned categories contribute to quality of life and public health issues long plaguing the region.
The Bond Act allows us to invest at a time of historically low-interest rates to mitigate these problems.
As the region arguably with the most vulnerabilities, the Long Island region will stand to disproportionately benefit from projects funded by this proposition. Our current leaders in local government across the political spectrum are united behind clean air and water. Sewering our downtowns and phasing out outdated septic tanks is not a matter of debate, but a matter of when.
The answer is now. While some might be apprehensive at the nebulous term “climate change mitigation” or the price tag, they should keep in mind what these projects are likely to constitute. Not only will sewer projects stand to gain funding, but shoreline resilience, restoration projects and open space preservation will as well. These objectives align with what our leaders in county government have been pursuing.
Our economy and way of life, directly and indirectly, are tied to our geographic endowments– endowments we have not been adequately maintaining. Our once bountiful shoreline, the source of fishing and tourism revenue, is in dire need of attention. Our agricultural sector, which has given way to a thriving agritourism sector, remains vulnerable to climate change.
It might be difficult to quantify and effectively communicate the ecological concerns in dollars and cents, but the threat to Long Island enterprise is much easier to communicate. Long Island has a $6.3 billion tourism industry, expected to employ over 100,000 people by 2028.
Agriculturally, Suffolk sells over a quarter billion dollars of products per year and is routinely ranked in the top 10 counties in New York State by agricultural sales. Twenty-three million pounds of fish are landed in New York, evaluated at $39.2 million dollars – mostly from Suffolk.
We are inescapably tied to the land and water more so than any part of our state. Local leaders in public comments and pundits long lamented the ‘end’ of large-scale funding for desperately needed sewers. On the ballot, there is now the opportunity – perhaps the last – to answer our needs economically.
Vote ‘Yes’ on Prop 2
The second proposition is straightforward and simple. The voters of Suffolk County already voted for term limits in a previous ballot proposition. The
voters of Suffolk County passed the proposition. It is only due to the legal gymnastics of Kate Browning’s campaign that the voters of Suffolk County must vote ‘yes’ once more to clarify the law.
