Take Up The Pen

Everybody talks about the weather, a wise man once quipped, but nobody does anything about it. (It wasn’t Mark Twain, incidentally, though he often gets credit: It was his good friend Charles Dudley Warner, in an editorial in the Hartford Courant in 1897.) The same is true of so many other conditions that seem beyond our control — summer traffic on the South Fork, for instance, is on the tip of every tongue these days, but nobody really has a plan to fix the gridlock spilling even onto back roads.

There is a related problem — the lack of affordable housing — that contributes to the traffic jam, since fewer people who work in the region’s businesses can afford to live in the same community. So in addition to the “trade parade,” there is a steady tide flowing in and out of everyday workers, not just in the summer but virtually year round. The crushing traffic discourages people from agreeing to work locally, which makes it very hard indeed these days to run a business in any season.

Everyone talks about affordable housing, but nobody does anything about it. Except — that’s not exactly true. In fact, there’s only one man standing in the way of actual progress on the issue.

On Governor Andrew Cuomo’s desk is legislation approved by both houses of the State Legislature that would allow the creation of the Community Housing Fund in the five East End towns. Patterned on the Community Preservation Fund — a 2 percent transfer tax that unexpectedly has raised nearly $1.7 billion for land preservation since its enactment in 1999, transforming the region — it would allow the towns to opt to add a 0.5 percent tax to use for affordable housing measures: aid for first-time homebuyers, and buying or building houses to meet the growing need.

The legislation made it to Mr. Cuomo’s pen in 2019, but he vetoed it — the idea of any new tax reeking of political poison. But Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., who has championed the legislation, didn’t give up: The measure is back, and he believes that by offsetting the new tax with larger exemptions from the CPF, the new legislation actually will be a wash as far as its impact on taxpayers.

A note: So many local politicians, or wannabes, talk about using CPF revenues for affordable housing. They seem oblivious to the point that a fund created to stop development could not, under any legal circumstances, be repurposed to build houses, even if creating affordable housing clearly can meet the definition of “community preservation.” It’s misplaced energy to even suggest it — and it should be directed instead at pushing the Community Housing Fund proposal over the finish line.

Governor Cuomo must sign this measure immediately. A veto would be an affront to a community facing a dire crisis, and even a delay will take a toll, since the towns must start to prepare for a time when the biggest obstacle, money, is no longer the issue, and it must be spent wisely. Then it’s just about creativity — both talking about the problem and doing something about it.