Suffolk votes to sell tobacco rights

The Suffolk County Legislature has approved a deal to sell the rights to the county's final 25 percent of funds due from the settlement of a multistate tobacco lawsuit that will provide more than $30 million to help budget shortfalls in the next two years.

Lawmakers voted unanimously Tuesday at their meeting in Riverhead to back the sale of bonds that will generate $20 million in revenue in 2012 and at least another $10 million in 2013. That will leave the county with a residual of $2.1 million a year, but the figure would decline if tobacco consumption drops.

The savings from the tobacco settlement funds were already included in the legislature's amended version of the $2.7-billion county budget for 2012, but the resolution approved Tuesday was the first step toward implementing that plan.

The money generated from the bond sale, to be held early next year, will be used to pay off county debt, lowering interest payments the county must make.

Presiding Officer William Lindsay (D-Holbrook) said the deal was important to help avoid budget shortfalls and that the timing is right to sell rights to settlement money because tobacco use continues to drop, reducing future proceeds. "It's time to get out of that product," he said.

Also Tuesday, lawmakers approved a $3 increase in the current $5-per-car parking fee for beachgoers at Smith Point County Park, the county's largest ocean beach.

Legislative officials say the increase will generate an extra $200,000 a year.

The legislature also approved, on a 10-6 vote, a repeal of the sales tax cap on the price of gasoline above the wholesale price of $3 per gallon -- a measure that could save $7.7 million next year. However, lawmakers expect Levy to veto the measure.

While Democrats were two votes short of what's needed for an override, Lindsay said there is still an "outside shot" to get the 12 votes because Legis. Ricardo Montano was not present and Lindsay hopes he can persuade one more lawmaker to back the repeal.

In an hourlong public hearing, lawmakers also heard 19 speakers testify in favor of a bill sponsored by Legis. Edward Romaine (R-Center Moriches) that would require anyone who plans to discharge sulfur, barium salts or aluminum oxide into Suffolk County airspace to file a complete environmental impact statement.

A packed room of supporters maintained that private firms are engaged in geoengineering to alter climate by discharging chemicals that taint the air and hurt trees and the soil.