Voters across the South Fork will have two ballot propositions to consider on Election Day that could have an impact here: Proposition 1, on the Equal Rights Amendment to the New York State Constitution, and Proposition 2, on the Suffolk County Water Quality Restoration Act.
The Equal Rights Amendment would legally protect against discrimination based on sex, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, pregnancy status, reproductive outcome, and gender identity. The water quality act would increase the county sales tax by one-eighth of a cent to fund water quality improvement projects across the county.
At present the state constitution protects only against discrimination based on “race, color, creed, and religion.” The amendment would change the language of the article to expand the protections.
“New York State passed a so-called equal rights amendment in the 1930s that protected New Yorkers from discrimination based on ethnicity and religion, but not on the basis of gender, sexuality, or pregnancy outcomes,” said Andrea Gabor, a board member for the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island, and North Fork. “The position of the league and my position is that this is a super important amendment.”
Signs related to this amendment have been popping up lately from those against it, urging people to “vote no” to “protect girls’ sports” or reading “no legal rights for illegal migrants.” The signs were paid for by the New York State Republican Committee.
Opponents have said the amendment could have unintended consequences. “You can’t discriminate if boys want to play in girls’ sports,” the East End’s State Senator Anthony Palumbo said, by way of example. He said the sponsors of the bill “are using it as a political football, quite frankly,” meaning that it is an issue getting extra traction because of an upcoming election. He originally supported it, but does not now. “We were told there were going to be changes made to it, which weren’t made. Now the big issue is all the rights that are enumerated actually compete with each other, so for example, religious rights are on par with someone’s gender identity.”
Ms. Gabor of the League of Women Voters described the arguments against the amendment involving girls’ sports as “really lame,” saying that it indicates opponents are looking for “a reason not to vote for it.”
“How are you not going to give people their basic rights based on the possibility that maybe some women’s sports team will be at a disadvantage?” she asked. Of that opposition, she said, “It’s a smokescreen, that’s all it is.”
One of the main issues Proposition 2, having to do with water quality, seeks to address is nitrogen-polluting cesspools, of which there are 380,000 in Suffolk County. The small increase in sales tax would provide money that could be used to incentivize the switch to “clean water technology.”
The sales tax increase would generate “somewhere in the neighborhood of $4.2 billion” for water restoration efforts, State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. told the Wainsott Citizens Advisory Committee on Saturday morning. “As you know, water quality has been perhaps the most important environmental issue we’ve been dealing with.”
The act was a compromise between eastern and western Suffolk County, the assemblyman said. Fifty percent of the revenue would go to sewage treatment plants, while the other 50 percent would go to replacing old septic systems, which is more pertinent to the East End.
He fielded questions on the act at Saturday’s meeting, including one from a man who asked about a “watchdog” to ensure the funds are allocated properly. The bill is drafted in such a way to ensure all money is routed to the proper location, the assemblyman responded.
Similar concerns were shared in the Suffolk County Legislature last year when the act failed to make the ballot due to concerns over the “distribution of funding” and “location of priorities,” The Star reported.
Governor Kathy Hochul signed the act in May of this year, and in July, Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine did the same, authorizing the measure to be on the ballot.
“I am confident that voters will see their enlightened self-interest,” Assemblyman Thiele said at the Wainscott meeting.
If approved, the sales tax would expire in 2060.
Both propositions will be on the back of the ballot.
In East Hampton, voters will also consider a local proposition on the property at the intersection of North Main Street and Springs-Fireplace and Three Mile Harbor Roads. That proposition will be covered separately in a future issue.
