Residents of Nassau have a rare opportunity this November to vote for a bond that will not only protect our drinking water and reduce storm water pollution but will also expand and improve local parks and protect endangered open space in our increasingly crowded communities.

Runaway housing development has put our drinking water at serious risk. Our parks have grown increasingly dilapidated with the recent fiscal crisis, and no effort has been made to provide new parks as the population expands. Open space itself is rapidly disappearing, as developers buy up every remaining spec of land and crowd it with houses.

Higher taxes, crowded schools, school budget problems, streets choked with traffic, threats to our drinking water, and impaired sense of community and lower housing values are the inevitable result of runaway development in Nassau County.

It is an established fact that rapid housing development drives up the cost of municipal services much faster than it expands local tax revenues, thereby leading to ever higher taxes and, consequently, lower housing values. Municipal services are labor intensive without any economies of scale (actually they have "diseconomies" of scale), so costs of government grow more rapidly with increased housing density and the resulting growth in population.

The cost of living is high and housing values are relatively low in Nassau (compared, say, to Connecticut) principally because of runaway development and its affect on local taxes.

The Clean Water, Open Space and Parks Improvement Bond can help address these ills. If we fail to act now, all remaining open space will be swallowed up within the next three to five years. Municipal service costs will continue to surge as will local tax rates.

Drinking water will be increasingly threatened. And storm water runoff will increase local pollution, affecting our beaches and estuaries.

Importantly, the bond itself will not increase the cost of government services and it will help avoid future government spending. Improved parks cost less to maintain and new parks will be maintained by non-governmental groups. Drinking water and storm water runoff protection will avoid future emergency governmental expenditures to address these crises. Open space protection will be achieved through purchase of development rights (not through buying land), thereby leaving the management of the open space (and related costs) in private hands. And all of these benefits can accrue to Nassau residents at an estimated annual debt service cost of only $7 per household.

The Clean Water, Open Space and Parks Improvement Bond is the most effective means of addressing the problems arising from the over-development of Nassau County and should be supported by all residents.