UPDATED: As County Caps Gas Tax, Locals Say More Should Be Done

The day after a gas tax cap was supposed to be enacted, Suffolk County Legislature Presiding Officer William Lindsay said Wednesday that a “technical error” will
delay implementation of the tax cap for at least another three months.

Lindsay, D-Holbrook, said the county law was never filed with New York State.

He added that a special meeting has already been called for Thursday, and  Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy has been asked to file a certificate of necessity. The tax cap can be filed following another affirmative vote, and would begin three months after it is filed with the state.

While those who frequent area gas stations are appreciative of the legislature's effort to cap its portion of the tax on motor fuel priced above $3 per wholesale gallon, they say more should be done to help out regular folks who are hurting.

"Personally, it's killing me," said Rich Bove, a Centereach resident who makes corporate deliveries by day and drives a tow truck by night. "They definitely need to do more, but it is a step."

Franklin Square resident Sal Parrinello, who stopped for gas at a BP station in South Setauket Monday, agreed.

"That's not bad," he said of the county's cap. But prices are "still too high ... I think the companies are making too much money," he said.

The one-month per-gallon average has risen from $3.36 on Jan. 28 to $3.59 on Feb. 28, according to LongIslandGasPrices.com. It's enough to make some think about getting a more fuel-efficient car, but even that has its downsides.

"The problem is that the more efficient cars are more expensive," said Bove, 34, who stopped Monday in Stony Brook for a delivery.

"When I first started driving, gas was 99 cents a gallon," he said, "and I swore I would never say anything like that."

Swearing at the pump these days probably isn't uncommon. A Rocky Point grandmother, who declined to provide her name, used a few choice words to describe her feelings as she filled up at the Hess Station on Route 347 near Stony Brook Road – itself one of the cheaper gas stations around Three Village.

The prices have hurt businesses as well as residents. Mike D'Angelo, a Stony Brook medical student from Dix Hills, said at his family-owned construction business, material costs and job estimates have gone up because of gas prices.

"Gas was never an issue before, but now you've got to figure that into the cost of every job," D'Angelo said. "It costs $20 a day to drive a truck to a job. When it was $5 a day, it didn't matter."

Marwan Abousaid of Selden has seen the prices of daily essentials tick upwards along with gas prices.

"Milk, coffee, vegetables," he said as he filled up his tank at BP in South Setauket. "It's not only capping you need. I don't know what else there is to do."

The county legislature voted 15-3 last June to cap the county's portion of the tax, with Legis. Vivian Viloria-Fisher, D-Setauket, voting against the gas tax cap. She could not be reached for comment on Monday or Tuesday.

According to Robert Lipp, deputy director of the Suffolk County Legislature Budget Review Office, the tax cap will cause the county to lose about $3.8 million in revenue, based on projected prices of $3.50 per gallon. He said individual consumers can expect to save about $8 per year based on annual travel of 12,000 miles and vehicles getting 20 miles per gallon, but they won't see a difference in retail prices if gas is below $3.30 per gallon.

"The tax cap is on the wholesale price," Lipp said. "So the point to be made is that if consumers are seeing a price of $3.30 at the pump, that is the equivalent of a wholesale price of $3.00."

Lipp said his office "has always been against the cap" because of the negative budget impact.

"We have some serious budget issues that need to be dealt with," he said.

This story was written based on reporting from Chris R. Vaccaro, Joseph Pinciaro, and Christine Sampson.