Huntington road-repaving tax faces steep climb

An idea floated this spring to add a highway tax to finance more repaving in the Town of Huntington is at a dead end, at least for now.

Town Supervisor Ed Smyth said he has dropped the idea to have a public referendum on adding a standalone line item on residents' property tax bills for funding road-repaving projects because he doesn’t have enough support from his town board colleagues.

“Until I have support for it I can’t move forward,” Smyth said.

The four other town board members said they had no prior information about the idea before hearing about it in media reports and a casual mention of it by Smyth at a town board meeting. Smyth said he discussed the idea of getting public feedback about implementing a proposed tax hike of about $138 a year for the average household in the town newsletter, the Liberty and a March Newsday article.

It costs $200,000 to repave1 mile of roadway, town officials said. The town currently repaves from 22 to 35 miles of road each year. So far this year, about 12 miles of roadway have been repaved.

“It was never seriously considered because there were never any discussions over it,” said Republican Town Board member Gene Cook. 

Joan Cergol, a Democrat, said inflation and the easing of the pandemic only recently makes the timing of a new tax a challenge. Still, she said she might have considered a public hearing.

“I might have said, ‘Sure let’s hear from people on this,’ ” Cergol said. “But I was never asked and he never spoke to me about it.”

Sal Ferro and Dave Bennardo, both Republicans, said because there was no prior discussion with them of the idea,  they could not support moving forward. 

“If it was handled differently, maybe it had a chance, but it was just blurted out,” Bennardo said.

Ferro said there is still an avenue for the idea. 

 “If more research and outreach is done, we can look at it down the road,” Ferro said. “I do support considering ideas that would lead to paving more roads.”

Republican Highway Superintendent Andre Sorrentino said he’s not surprised the idea  hasn't been embraced.

“Nobody wants to see their taxes go up,” he said.

Smyth thanked Sorrentino and his staff for paving as many roadways as they can with the resources that they have.

“But until the public indicates they want more paving, we will continue to do what we’ve been doing.”