Southampton Town has $1.3 billion in assets, audit shows
Southampton Town Hall in Southampton, Feb. 25, 2016. Credit: Gordon M. Grant
Southampton Town has $1.3 billion in assets, mostly properties it owns, including preserved land, according to an audit of town finances by a private accounting firm.
Nawrocki Smith LLP presented a report to the town board during a work session on Thursday stating that the town holds $270 million in liabilities such as bonds, making its net worth about $1 billion.
Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman estimated that about $600 million of that is in preserved land, which would require an act of the State Legislature to sell. An additional $300 million is in development and access rights, according to the firm.
“It has some value, if you were ever in a fiscal bind, but nobody would ever consider I don’t think selling any of those things,” Schneiderman said.
Much of that land was likely purchased with town community preservation fund money, which is generated through a 2 percent tax on real estate transfers.
The report found no internal weakness or deficiencies in control of town finances, according to the firm.
Vera Chinese joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
