Saltaire balks at proposal to raise Fire Island Water Taxi rates

The Fire Island village of Saltaire is challenging proposed fare increases for water taxi rides across the Great South Bay this summer, arguing the hikes haven't been justified by Suffolk County staffers who backed them.

Fire Island Water Taxi LLC asked the Suffolk Legislature to allow the fare increases in January. The county licenses all ferry and water taxi services, including the water taxi’s parent company, Fire Island Ferries Inc., which is the largest ferry operator on Fire Island.

The price hike would raise the average seasonal base fare for water taxi trips between Islip and Fire Island about 44%, or from $263 to $377, Newsday reported earlier this year.

Suffolk County's Budget Review Office backed the request in a February report to the legislature. It said the price hikes “have merit” because the taxi company has lost roughly $500,000 each year since fares were last adjusted in 2022, mainly because of state minimum wage increases and inflation.

But Saltaire Mayor Hugh O’Brien pointed out his concerns with the report in a letter last month to the legislature's presiding officer, Kevin J. McCaffrey. Among O'Brien's points:

The report cites a 47% increase in fuel costs since 2022, but, O’Brien's letter says, there was a “decrease in prices of all types of fuel” during that time frame.

Suffolk’s report called minimum wage the “primary driver” of the fare hikes. O’Brien wrote that minimum wage increased “only 10% during that period, (so) we question how that could be the primary driver for a rate increase of 40%.”

The report said Fire Island Water Taxi’s personnel costs rose 28% between 2022 and 2024, or nearly three times the minimum wage increase during that time frame.

Lawmakers to decide next week

“Saltaire does not object to a reasonable fare increase,” O’Brien wrote. “A strict and convincing analysis must be undertaken to assure that the requested rate is justified … We don’t believe the current [county] report meets that standard.”

Fire Island Water Taxi did not respond to a request for comment.

Legis. Steve Flotteron (R-Brightwaters) said county staffers are reviewing the fare increase request before the legislature “makes a determination” during its meeting Tuesday.

O'Brien focused his criticism on Suffolk County’s Budget Review Office, which was tasked with analyzing the financial merits of Fire Island Water Taxi’s proposal.

O’Brien wrote that it was “the failure of the BRO report to present clear, factual and unequivocal arguments for approval of a fare increase of 40% over a three-year period in which the [inflation rate] for that same period was 6.23%.”

Fire Island Association president Suzy Goldhirsch echoed O’Brien’s sentiment.

“We’re a little disappointed that when [the company] asked for a significant rate increase cross-bay, [the county BRO] didn’t get information to help us understand why they suggested that the request had merit,” she said in an interview.

A call to the budget review office seeking comment wasn't immediately returned. 

Cost of one-way trips cited

Fire Island Water Taxi president Tim Mooney broke with the county report during the Suffolk Legislature’s April 8 meeting when he said the cost of fuel “has been pretty stable” and minimum wage only “represented about 10%” of his cost increase.

Mooney focused on an operational issue with cross-bay taxi rides, which don't follow a set schedule. He said riders only pay for one way, but the company still has to bring the empty boats back to the mainland after dropping off passengers.

“That still had the expense of a round-trip and we were charging basically a one-way,” he said, adding that if the higher cost of water taxis don’t “work for somebody, we run the ferry service as well. You can have substantial savings by … taking the ferry.”

George Hoffman, a consultant for Saltaire, took issue with that sentiment.

“There's an awful lot of workers and first responders … who use the water taxi because the hours of the ferry [don’t align with] the hours that they have to be on Fire Island,” he said at the legislature. “It’s not just well-to-do people.”

By Sam Kmack

sam.kmack@newsday.com

Sam Kmack covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California and previously worked as a city watchdog reporter in the Phoenix metro area, as well as an investigative journalist at the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.