Nassau not billing nonprofits for sewage

Nassau has not collected $19 million in revenue for last year because the cash-strapped county has yet to figure out how to bill nonprofits for new sewage disposal fees, officials said.

Tax receivers in all three towns say Nassau did not include the expected sewer fees on county warrants towns use to generate general tax bills in January, and say the next time they could bill the nonprofits will be in December. Warrants authorize receivers to send out tax bills, and collect revenue.

Oyster Bay Receiver of Taxes James Stefanich said county officials told him the sewer fees would be added to the tax warrant, but they were not included in the data he received last month. When he inquired on Dec. 27 about the charges, "I got an answer back, 'No, we're not going to do it,' " Stefanich said this week.

Hofstra University, which was expected to be charged as much as $1.2 million, has not received a bill, a spokeswoman said.

The delay means the 2011 county sewer district budget of $164 million will be short $19 million in expected revenue, though county officials say reserves will cover the gap. Another $38 million in new fees is included in the 2012 budget.

Brian Nevin, a spokesman for County Executive Edward Mangano, initially declined to comment. But after being told of the tax receivers' comments, Nevin stressed that the bills affect only the sewer district, not the general county budget, which is under the control of a state financial oversight board because of multimillion-dollar operating deficits.

"When County Executive Mangano took office, he inherited a Sewer District that faces a multi-year structural imbalance. A plan was set forth by the County Executive that requires not-for-profits to pay for the services they consume without raising rates on residents," Nevin said in a statement. "As you can imagine, the process to bill not-for-profits is complicated and the County has therefore contracted with [consulting engineer] Camp Dresser & McKee, Inc. to implement its billing plan. The sewer authority in 2012 will be in operational balance."

Over Democrats' objections, the Republican majority in the county legislature in October 2010 approved a 1-cent-per-gallon sewage charge on nonprofits -- except churches and veterans halls -- to cover a projected $28 million sewer district deficit. While Nassau homeowners and businesses pay a fee as part of their property tax bill, nonprofit agencies, including schools, hospitals and libraries, had never before been charged for sewage disposal.

Anticipating a start-up delay as the county tried to determine how to bill, the legislature included only $19 million in new revenue -- half the $38 million expected to be generated annually -- into the 2011 sewer budget.

Republican lawmakers agreed to hire Camp Dresser in July for $242,800 to develop a rate structure and prepare billing. Deputy County Executive Tim Sullivan told legislators the bills would "go out shortly" when testifying about the budget this October.

"We don't know anything about it," a spokesman for Presiding Officer Peter Schmitt (R-Massapequa) said this week when asked about the delay in bills. "We assume the bills were sent out."

But Democrats said they had expected problems. "They have no mechanism for generating these bills," said Legis. Wayne Wink (D-Roslyn). "This is unfortunately what happens when an administration flies blind."