State Senator Michael Balboni has introduced legislation in the New York State Senate, one that would offer a tax abatement for a sewer bill paid by certain local residents.

The legislation concerns a long-running issue in the Roslyn area, namely the fact that numerous property owners, located mostly in Roslyn Heights, are paying a sewer tax for services they do not receive.

The bill would not repeal the sewer tax. Instead it offers a tax abatement for the identical amount of the sewer tax bill. If, for instance, the aggrieved property owners pay $50 on a sewer bill, then the Nassau County assessment officer must offer that taxpayer a $50 abatement.

The legislation has been moved from the local government committee to the senate calendar, which means that a vote by the entire senate could come shortly. Spokesmen from Senator Balboni's office said that the senator is committed to bringing the legislation to a vote before the senator adjourns for the year on June 19.

In the state assembly, Thomas DiNapoli is sponsoring his own version of the bill. To consider such legislation, the assembly may stay in session past June 19.

The language in the bill noted that property owners in the East Hills district are shouldering an "unduly burdensome" tax bill for the maintenance of that sewer district. As such, only "those owners of parcels of real property receiving such services should be required to pay any taxes imposed by such districts."

On the matter of a tax abatement, the legislation states: "It is hereby directed that the owners of such parcels that do not receive sewer and collection services shall be provided with a tax abatement equal to the amount that each property owner is assessed in taxes imposed by such district."

Recently, Nassau County Legislator Craig Johnson said that tax relief for the aggrieved property owners can only come from Albany. Legislator Johnson has endorsed the creation of a Sewer and Storm Water Authority. Such an Authority, Johnson claims, would save the county $25 million in expenses, in the process, repealing the sewer tax in question. The administration of Thomas R. Suozzi first proposed the Authority. Minority Leader Peter Schmitt has opposed the Authority, claiming that it will result in a larger bureaucracy with the power to independently tax and spend.

In the event that the Authority is not approved, then a piece of stand-alone legislation is also being prepared in Albany. This bill, if introduced, would allow Albany to give the Nassau County legislator the authority to repeal the sewer tax.

Meanwhile, civic association members in Roslyn Heights, the people who first brought the sewer tax issue to the forefront, support the legislation introduced by Senator Balboni.

At the same time, many of them have said that tax repeal legislation isn't really necessary to solve the problem. Instead of relying on Albany to pass legislation, the county can alleviate the tax burden by simply redrawing Nassau's sewer district lines, thus relocating property owners into a district where they receive services for their taxes. Some members have also expressed their own opposition to the Sewer and Storm Water Authority, claiming that it would result in a greater overall tax burden to county residents.

The taxes came into being as a result of the 1965 creation of a Sanitary Sewage Disposal District, one that ran from the southern edge of Roslyn, down to the south shore. This sewer district eventually effected residents in villages as different as Oyster Bay, Long Beach, and Roslyn Heights. In 1973, another resolution created smaller sewer collection districts within the larger disposal districts. Critics have claimed that this imposed an additional tax on property owners, one used for the installation and maintenance of sewer lines in the streets of the collection district. According to civic association members, a total of 18,000 households in Nassau County have been paying taxes for services they do not receive.

Once the controversy became public several months ago, personnel with the Nassau County's Commission of Public Works have noted that the sewage district in question provides a "mutual benefit to all county residents" simply by maintaining the quality of the groundwater and surface waters.

However, commission spokesmen have also said that they would begin re-evaluating all the collection and disposal district boundaries, in an effort to reduce the yearly costs for administrating the three sewage disposal districts and the 27 sewage collection districts that operate in the county.