Environmentalist Dick Amper is using his considerable wind power to express his displeasure over the defeat of a proposal that would have created a fund to preserve open space in Brookhaven.
Proposition Three, rejected by 61 percent of Brookhaven voters, would have mandated a 2 percent real estate transfer tax. Anyone who purchased a home in the town would have had to pay the tax on everything over $250,000.
Amper, of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, says he blames the real estate industry for the proposition’s defeat. He said Realtors (yes, it gets a capital “R”) used significant resources to convince voters that the proposition was a bad deal.
Amper says his group will now create a bond act for voters to decide on. He hopes to get the act on a ballot in a special election in the first quarter of 2008.
He added that the town board’s newly elected Republican majority and re-elected Democrats “are on board” with bringing the issue back to voters, based on initial conversations with the members today.
Response to Dick Amper’s Comments as reported by Carl Corry, titled “Blame it on the Realtors”:
The voters have spoken, enough with Dick Amper’s “sour grape” comments.
The voters understood that Proposal Three, The Brookhaven Transfer Tax, was a BAD deal.
The Realtors merely exposed the truth, which is that real estate transfer taxes are an unfair method to preserve open space. (See News12 poll results that confirm that a vast majority of viewers share this opinion)
Dick Amper should not blame others for his own failures.
The fact that he now supports a bond proposal, which is a more equitable method of funding open space that spreads the cost of this “public benefit” to everyone and makes it more affordable for individual taxpayers, is a step in the right direction.
I care alot about preserving the pine barrens, but the people of Brookhaven have spoken and they cannot afford a transfer tax, especially at this time. It worked on the east end towns which has alot of money, but in working class Brookhaven it is a different story. Amper and the Society may have been instrumental in preservation of the core area of the pine barrens, but after that, they have been nothing but air. Amper seems strangely silent on projects that have threatened the pine barrens. I cant seem to find anything on trying to stop the monster Tanger Outlet Center in Riverhead, the largest project ever built in the pine barrens. That’s because the Society and Amper get their money from developers, and they buy their approval from Amper. Tanger’s impact to the area has been devastating. Traffic jams and litter have been clogging the Peconic river, as a result of the extra traffic the roads cannot handle. Amper has let us down time and time again. He’s nothing but hot air, and actually hasn’t done as much to protect the pine barrens as he would like you to believe.
It really is time for a more sensible voice for land preservation.