§ 1210-A. Sales and compensating use tax for purposes of the Suffolk county drinking water protection program. (a) In addition to the taxes imposed by section twelve hundred ten or any other provision of this article, the county of Suffolk is hereby authorized and empowered to adopt and amend a local law, ordinance or resolution imposing within the territorial limits of said county an additional sales and compensating use tax at the rate of one-quarter of one percent for the period beginning December first, nineteen hundred eighty-four and ending November thirtieth, two thousand sixty, which tax shall be identical to the tax imposed by said county pursuant to section twelve hundred ten of this article. Except as hereinafter provided, all provisions of this article, including the definition and exemption provisions and the provisions relating to the administration, collection and distribution by the commissioner, shall apply for purposes of the tax imposed by this section in the same manner and with the same force and effect as if the language of this article had been incorporated in full in this section and had expressly referred to the tax imposed by this section; provided, however, that any provision relating to a maximum rate shall be calculated without reference to the additional sales and compensating use tax herein authorized. For purposes of part IV of this article, relating to the disposition of revenues resulting from taxes collected and administered by the commissioner, the additional sales and compensating use tax herein provided shall be deemed to be imposed under the authority of section twelve hundred ten of this article and all provisions relating to the deposit, administration and disposition of taxes, penalties and interest relating to a tax imposed by a county under the authority of section twelve hundred ten of this article shall, except as otherwise specifically provided in this section, apply to the additional sales and compensating use tax imposed pursuant to this section.

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(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of this article to the contrary, the net collections from the tax imposed pursuant to subdivision (a) of this section for the period beginning December first, nineteen hundred eighty-four and ending November thirtieth, nineteen hundred eighty-eight shall, upon payment to the county of Suffolk, and moneys due said fund pursuant to subdivisions (c) and (d) of this section, be deposited in a special fund, to be designated as an assessment stabilization reserve fund, to be created by said county therefor separate and apart from any other funds and accounts of the county. Moneys in such fund shall be deposited and secured in the manner provided by § 10 of the general municipal law. Pending expenditure from such fund, moneys therein may be invested in the manner provided in § 11 of the general municipal law. Any interest earned or capital gain realized on the moneys so deposited or invested shall accrue to and become part of such fund. Moneys in said fund may be appropriated from and transferred to or expended in any fiscal year only for the purposes and in the order as follows:

(i) to an account or accounts for the Southwest Sewer District of said county in such amount or amounts as shall be determined by the county executive of said county and approved by the county legislature of said county as necessary to stabilize assessments in such sewer district in any given year;

(ii) to an account or accounts for any other sewer district established by the county of Suffolk in such amount or amounts as shall be determined by the county executive of said county and approved by the county legislature of said county as necessary to stabilize assessments in any such sewer district in any given year; and

(iii) for distribution to the towns and villages within said county which have established or created a sewer district or benefitted area to provide sewer improvements or constructed or are constructing a sewer or sewerage system in such amount or amounts as shall be determined by the county executive of said county and approved by the county legislature of said county as necessary to stabilize assessments or taxes, as the case may be, in any such sewer district or benefitted area or for any such sewer system in any given year.

(c) To the extent necessary to continue the tax stabilization of those sewer districts receiving appropriations pursuant to subdivision (b) of this section, the net collections from the tax imposed pursuant to subdivision (a) of this section for the period beginning December first, nineteen hundred eighty-eight and ending November thirtieth, nineteen hundred eighty-nine, together with interest thereon at a rate equal to the interest rate for one year United States Treasury bills as of the date such funds were invested, shall constitute a guarantee and shall be made available and paid to the assessment stabilization reserve fund set forth in subdivision (b) of this section on a first priority basis from all of the net collections of the tax imposed pursuant to this section.

(d) Notwithstanding any other provision of this article to the contrary, the net collections from the tax imposed pursuant to subdivision (a) of this section for the period beginning December first, nineteen hundred eighty-eight and ending November thirtieth, two thousand sixty shall, upon payment to the county of Suffolk, be deposited in a special fund, to be designated as a drinking water protection reserve fund, to be created by said county therefor separate and apart from any other funds and accounts of the county. Moneys in such fund shall be deposited in one or more of the banks or trust companies designated, in the manner provided by law, as a depository of the funds of such county. Pending expenditure from such fund, moneys therein may be invested in the manner provided in § 11 of the general municipal law. Any interest earned or capital gain realized on the moneys so deposited or invested shall accrue to and become part of such fund. Moneys in said fund may be appropriated from and transferred to or expended in any fiscal year only for the purposes of making payments pursuant to subdivisions (b) and (c) of this section for the period beginning December first, nineteen hundred eighty-eight, to the extent that moneys in said fund are remaining, and if authorized by local law, for the following purposes:

(i) for the purposes of specific environmental protection (acquisition of: farmland development rights; open space, wetlands, woodlands, pine barrens and other lands for passive recreational uses; lands for hamlet greens, hamlet parks, pocket parks, historic parks, cultural parks and other lands for active/parkland recreational uses; lands necessary for maintaining and protecting the quality of surface water, groundwater and coastal resources);

(ii) for a water quality protection and restoration program or programs and land stewardship initiatives;

(iii) for the purposes of county-wide property tax protection; and

(iv) for the purpose of sewer taxpayer protection.

Notwithstanding any special or local law, resolution or charter provision to the contrary, moneys in said fund which have not been appropriated from and transferred to or expended in any fiscal year for the purposes of making payments pursuant to subdivisions (b) and (c) of this section, may alternatively be appropriated for the purposes of paying debt service on any new indebtedness incurred after the effective date of the chapter of the laws of two thousand one that enacted this paragraph pursuant to the local finance law in order to effectuate the purposes described in paragraph (i) or (ii) of this subdivision. For the purpose of allocating moneys in said fund pursuant to local law among the purposes described in paragraphs (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv) of this subdivision, moneys applied to the payment of debt service under the authority of the previous sentence shall be considered by said county to have been expended for the purposes for which such indebtedness was incurred.