Nassau GOP Rails Against Home Energy Tax

Nassau Legislator Ed Mangano and his GOP colleagues say County Exec Tom Suozzi has gone too far with the Home Energy Tax.

By Joe O’Halloran

In early 2009, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi announced a new Home Energy Tax on all residential home energy sources that would impose an additional 2.5 percent tax on all county taxpayers.

For some lawmakers, it is just too much.

Gathered in front of the Theodore Roosevelt Executive Building on Monday, Legislative Minority Leader Peter Schmitt (R-Massapequa) along with other GOP members announced the receipt of over 50,000 petitions calling for the repeal of Suozzi’s Home Energy Tax.

“The message is clear: people can’t afford to pay any more taxes,” said Nassau Legislator Edward Mangano (R-Bethpage), who is also running against Suozzi for county executive this year.

“[Suozzi] has already increased property taxes by 3.9 percent this year, and now he’s adding on this Home Energy Tax which is the equivalent of a 4.5-percent property tax increase, according to the Office of Legislative Budget Review. This tax has to be repealed and it has to be repealed now,” Mangano said.

Mangano says the tax on electric service, the first of its kind in Nassau, is a danger to taxpayers because it has the potential of reaching the level of the current sales tax priced at 8.625 percent.

“My office often receives calls, throughout the winter months especially, from many people that can’t afford their oil bills, or their gas bills, or they can’t afford to heat their homes, and now Nassau County has just piled on another 2.5 percent on the top of their burden already. It’s wrong. It’s the wrong direction for Nassau,” Mangano said.

Schmitt says the GOP has collected petitions throughout the county calling for an immediate end to the tax burden. He says the tax would be issued on everything related to residential energy use including LIPA electric usage, oil, natural gas, steam services, coal, propane, and firewood.

“This tax is a regressive, hidden tax that affects everybody. If you’re unemployed you have to pay. If you’re on a fixed income you have to pay. And as times get tough, you can choose not to go out for dinner as often, or you can choose not to go on vacation this year, but you can’t choose not to heat your house when your children are sleeping upstairs. It’s not fair to continue to ask all Nassau residents to pay more and always get less,” Schmitt said.

Currently, the legislature is split 10-9 and the Republican legislators have been fighting the Home Energy Tax since the Democratic Majority approved it in February 2009. The county expects this tax to raise $18 million from residents between June and December 2009, and seeks to raise $40 million from it in 2010.

Schmitt said the Republicans will continue to fight and continue to get petitions until either a sitting Republican votes in favor of repealing the tax or “a Democrat sides with us.”