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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1976 LONG ISLAND TRAVELER - WATCHMAN PAQE FIVE
ESBA Discuss Tax Reform Law
Among the Long Island businessmen discussing the complex new Tax Reform Act at the weekly ESBA breakfast were left to right, Henry Funsch, Howard Siegel, Robert Bogardt, Thomas Alto, and Hert)ert Mintz.
That tacky time of the year when we all sit down to do our taxes will be on us in the not too distant future. This time, however, there may be a few surprises; on October 4 of this year, the President signed a bill which has completely revised the federal tax structure.
Last week, businessmen met und er the auspices of East Suffolk Businessmen's Action and the Long Island Association of Commerce and Industry, to discuss the impact of this new law upon their commercial dealings. The changes are considerable and the five man panel composed of Robert Bogardt of Peat, Marwick & Mitchell, Inc., Thomas Alto of Ernst & Ernst, Inc., Henry Funsch from Price, Waterhouse, Inc., Howard Siegel of Haskin & Sells, Inc., and Herbert Mintz, an attorney, spent several hours outlining the legislation.
The new Tax Reform Act will lower already reduced corporate tax rates, and in one area, net operative laws, the newly liberalized situation is outstanding. If a corporation shows a loss one year and gains over the next few years, taxation may be based on the net result of the several years. This particular change is effective fiscal 1976.
Charity for whom?
The regulations on the taxation of charity donations have also been revamped. Now one can deduct the cost of the donation plus one half of the fair market value of the property contributed. But, in no event can you deduct double the original cost.
And apparently there is no minimum donation. According to Henry funsch , tax manager at Price, Waterhouse, “ If you donate band- aids to the Red Cross, you can deduct i t .”
Expenses for offices can be d e ducted only if the office is used exclusively for business. There is
one exception to this rule: a retail businessman who works out of his home can deduct for stock accomodation space in his office.
Exclusions for sick leave will be discontinued unless the individual happens to be disabled. If a disability is involved deductions up to $52,000 can be claimed as long as the individual is under 65.
One of the most significant changes fostered by the new law will affect retirement plans. Many executives lose their pension benefits as a result of moving from one company to another. Now, however, the Individual Retirement Account, which has for years provided a pension pain for people in their own businesses, will be made available to the executive working for a company. Also, nonworking spouses will be provided for under the IRA.
Another aspect of the new law affecting the retired will lump a great deal of the senior citizens’ taxable income under the heading of capital gains.
Not only business
The Tax Reform Act will not only affect businesses, but also taxpayers "across the board .” Alimony payments can now be deducted as an adjustment to gross income. As a result, a lower income divorcee can get a greater benefit by taking the standard deduction.
Paralleling Suffolk County’s Farm lands Program, the new federal law requires that farmlands be valued according to their present use as agricultural property. This regulation will apply so long as the land is used thus by the heirs.
Another segment of the law known as the Redfield Provision will allow the recipient of an estate to turn over, in place of estate taxes, stretches of undeveloped land to be used by the federal government for conservation purposes.
S o u t h a m p t o n B o a r d
R e a p p o i n t s W i n e s
After what seemed to have been some intra-Republican Party strife, Roy L. Wines has been reappointed to the Southampton Town Planning Board. In less than a minute and without any discussion the town board voted unanimously at the last meeting to reinstitute the town planner.
Mr. W ines’ term ended in October of this year and the town board waited until the meeting of December 7 to bring forth a resolution to reappoint him. Thomas Halsey, chairman of the planning board said, " I think that the very fact that it has been postponed as long as it has is an indication that not everyone is in favor of i t .”
The board tabled the resolution at the December 7 meeting because one of the board members, Norman T. Penney, had been on vacation at the time, according to one source.
But apparently there was more to it than that. Councilman Ted Alpert, who handled questions from the audience, said that any hesitation to reappoint Wines was on a purely persQnal basis.
At last week’s meeting, however, the resolution was brusquely put forth by councilman Alpert and just as quickly approved by the board members. Mr. Wines will retain his post until October of 1981.
Active m em ber
Roy Wines in an exceptionally active member of the community. Aside from sitting on the planning board he is a trustee of the Village of Southampton and is involved in many community projects.
He is a past Republican candidate for town supervisor and recalls with pride the idea of a master plan for
A T o w n P r e p a r e s F o r T h e W o r s t
CHRISTMAS PAGEANT AND DINNER at the United Methodist Church, Westhampton Beach, December 19, had the above scene with Debbie Hawkins as Mary and Billy Williams as Joseph enacting the story of Christ’s birth. The event was the combined efforts of Mrs. Charles Hedberg and Aunt Ida. Response of members and young people made it a joyous occasion. Reverend Edwin Bergman is the pastor, Nathan H. Slayton, Jr., Lay Leader.
F i n a l H e a r i n g O n O r i e n t D e v e l o p m e n t s
Southampton which was one of the planks in his platform. Essentially the same master plan has been adopted by the present town board.
Wines may have ruffled a few Republican feathers, but with his reappointment he feels that now “ it is a time for healing.”
Plans Parks
The plan for a major recreation complex currently being studied by Southampton Town might be dubbed a big project which, at this point, is still “ small potatoes” .
The proposed plan drawn up by Southampton Town’s engineering firm, Greenlawn and Pederson Associates, entails the purchase of a 36 acre parcel of land to be developed with swimming pools, basketoall courts, tennis courts, a football field and an ice skating rink.
However no steps will be taken to implement the project until federal funds can be procured. The town board’s only affirmative action so far has been to authorize appraisals for the land on which the proposed project is to be built.
The federal funds would cover only about 50 percent of the cost, according to one town official and the remainder would come from the pocket of the taxpayer. Collateral from one federal source may be in the offing. The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Recreation makes monies available from time to time, and the chance of a government grant from that bureau is not out of the realm of possibility. But, under no circumstances will the project be started without federal funding, according to Southampton Town Parks Committee.
The Southold Town Planning Board had a visit from the ghost of Christmas past last Monday night as they held the final public hearings on the proposed minor subdivision ap plications of Phyllis Hale and Barbara Hughes, both of Orient.
A year ago these proposals triggered an eruption from area residents who feared an accompanying east-west road running north of Route 25 in Orient and theoretically slicing through existing properties and buildings. Monday night, however, there was only one citizen present other than the applicants and their attorneys and the only sparks that flew were over a proposed 24-foot right of way which was suggested by the town engineer. Irving Price, the applicants’ a t torney, was adamant in his opposition to the new proposal as he said, “ This is in my opinion, outrageous. To impose a 24-foot road when Narrow Road is only 16 feet I think is asking too much. If we give in to that, what next?” The board’s response was enunciated by chairman John Wickham who said “ I think it’s fair to say that some improvement is in o rder .” He went on to point out that the planning board, if it accepts the town engin ee r ’s suggestion, would not have to order a paved road.
Other than that there was no new testimony and, at the hearings for both applications. Price said that in his opinion, “ W e’ve complied with every request.” The planning board now has 45 days within which to reach a decision. Of the other three hearings only one other was in the final stage and that was the D. T. and G. H. Smith application for a minor subdivision of property in Southold. At that hearing, as at all of them, no one spoke in opposition to the application. The board did request that, if approved, there be no further division of any of the lots.
The two other hearings were both for preliminary map approval. The first was the application of Colonel Ted Dowd for a subdivision in Mattituck north of the corner of Reeve Avenue and Mill. Road. There were a number of points which had been raised by the town engineer in his report concerning the road system and playground area. It was stated, however, that this has since been alleviated. Here also, it was recommended that no further subdivisions be made on this property and again it met with universal agreement.
The other preliminary map was that of a subdivision known as Paradise by the Sound off the North Road, Greenport. The first thing that the planning board requested on this one is the names of the applicants. Paradise by the Sound is owned by Time Structures, Inc. and the p lanning board asked the attorney present for the names of the officers of the corporation and a list of the stockholders. The attorney agreed to supply them.
Soundview Extension
One issue which was not taken up in depth Monday night but one on which the board plans to act is that of the application by Jack Levin to put an addition onto the Soundview Restaurant. Soundview is on the north side of the North Road between Albertson Lane and Chapel Lane. Greenport. The application represents a problem because the proposed addition would require parking for about 40 cars, yet the only space which could be used for parking is on the other side of the road. The addition of 40 cars pulling on and off the road there plus the vehicles’ occupants crossing the road is feared as a traffic hazzard and has
raised some suggestions from the senior building inspector of Southold Town, Howard Terry. In a letter to the commissioner of the Suffolk County Department of Public Works, Rudolph Kamnierer, he wrote, “ I have suggested the possibility of prohibiting all parking on the north side of the road, and have all parking on the south side with a pedestrian tunnel under the road or a pedestrian foot bridge over the road.”
When asked to comment on those possibilities planning board chairman John Wickham said “ I’m not sure that it’s feasible at all but one way to approach problems is to look at all the possibilities.” He went on to say that he doubts either of those two plans will be implemented because that piece of land is only ten feet above sea level, which would rule out the tunnel and the overhead foot bridge would probably conflict with long range county plans to put a four lane road there “ ...and they’re going to need a lot of overhead clearance.” All sides agree that there is no easy solution to the problem and Wickham himself said “ Frankly, we don’t know how to handle it .”
A unique, isolated community called Stelle has sprouted in the Illinois Cornfields atx)ut 100 miles south of Chicago. The community was established to plan for doomsday, expected in the year 2000. However residents today are more concerned with surviving the world nrvDnetary collapse they foresee coming next year.
Tlie members are trying to become as self-sufficient as possible, they are not panicky, just prudent.
In preparing for the expected monetary crisis, 80of Stelle’s 320 acres have t>een sold, and the money is being used to build greenhouses to grow vegetables and fruit. Some families are switching to wood-burning stoves. They are stockpiling grain and raising rabbits, poultry and livestock.
The Stelle philosophy comes from Richard Kieninger, who published his visions in 1963 in a book, "The Ultinnate Frontier.”
Kieninger saw it as his special mission in this life to prepare members to build a better world after the Apocalpyse forecast for two-thousand A.D...the universal disaster, when earthquakes, erupting volcanoes and tidal waves would wipe out nrx)st of the world’s population.
According to Kieninger’s Plan, when the catastrophe comes in another 24 years, the Stelle Group, which expects to grow to a quarter of a million people from throughout the world, will be airlifted to safety. They will return to build the Nation of God.
Stelle, surrounded by cornfields, looks like a modern housing development mistakenly plopped down miles from nowhere. There are 24 neat
homes on a winding road. The community has its own plants to filter water and treat sewage. All electrical and telephone lines are underground. There are no road signs leading to Stelle. It’s just there in the hinterlands and takes some looking and wanderings over farm roads to find.
The Stelle group is a non-profit corporation. However there is an allied organization, Stelle Industries, which turns a profit. Its factory houses woodworking plastics, graphics and metal divisions.
The group, with atwut 175 adult believers, 70 of them living in Stelle, is neither a movement nor a religion. Its members are practical, chosen people whose lives are t)ased on a system of responsibility and a deep belief.
Each family keeps its own finances but everyone is asked to contribute ten percent of his income and time to Stelle. When an individual passes a screening and becomes a resident member, he must bequeath nx)st of his possessions to the Group. Members must be financially solvent and must not own real estate or other assets out of the community. Prizes or inheritances must be donated to the Group. Doctors, lawyers, architects and teachers are among residents, and sonrie commute 20 miles to Kankakee or to Chicago.
There have been sharp disputes in the past over policy, but for the present at least, major issues are decided on by a majority vote wrtiile the community prepares for the worst.
That’s all for today, God Bless,
This is Patricia Wood reporting
G re e n p o rt H o n s iig S ib m its V onchers
The Greenport Housing Authority submitted $42,300 worth of vouchers to Suffolk County Tuesday as part of their ongoing program to clear up a number of eyesores in Greenport. However, the funding may be held up on the county’s end due to a class action suit which was filed last Thursday by the Wyandanch Community Development Corp., the Brookhaven Housing Coalition, the Brookhaven branch of the NAACP and five low income county residents.
The heart of the suit states that the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, through which the Greenport Housing Authority is funded, was violated by the way in which the Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded the monev to Suffolk Countv and in
the matter by which Suffolk County awards the money to the various municipalities. A hearing on whether or not the county can spend anymore money on this program has been scheduled for January 3 in federal court.
If the hearing rules in the county’s favor, the Housing Authority will be able to start action on four pieces of property. One of them in the Housing Authority’s program is in its second year but there are still properties from the first year’s schedule to be acquired and this is reflected in Tuesday’s voucher, $3,021 for a lot on the corner of Second and Center Streets which is owned by Mark Homes of 1540 Broadway in Manhattan. The Homes property is from the first year’s funding. The rest of the $39,279 is
for three properties which are listed on the second year’s schedule. They are a one-story residence and lot on West Street which is owned by Annie Ficurilli of Fourth Avenue, Greenport; a two-story residence and lot, also on West Street, owned by Joseph Stanilaus of Sound Road, Greenport, and a one and a half story residence, owned by Robert Turn- bill, 2 The Promenade. Glen Head, N.Y.
The issue of what to do about the trailers is still festering as the five trailers which are in Greenport are standing violations of the building code but two of them are occupied and the building inspector is waiting for an opinion from the village attorney and the Greenport Planning Board before evicting anyone. Aside from the trailers, vouchers and the properties which have already been disposed of there are still three properties which have to be handled.
Dean's A ll New.Main Road between Southold and Greenport
Open New Yearns
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MILL C R EEK LNN’S
NEW SIN D A Y B L T F E T
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O v e r l o o k i n g R e a u t i f t i l S o u t h o l d B a v
Do you get hungry tor a sandwhich, Every Monday thru jFriday burger or snack instead of a large dinner? Dinner Specials
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Steak Sandwich with F.F. 3̂̂ ’Shrimp in a Basket 2̂’°Chicken in a Basket 2̂’°Hot Roast Beef Sandwich, F.F.Hot Turkey Sandwich, F.F. 2̂̂ ’ Fish ’n Chips 52’°Baked Clams, F.F. 2̂̂ ^
Plus Jumbo Burgers, Hot and Cold Sandwiches, Salads & More
Dinner includes Homemade Bread, Salad,
Entree choice of Potato, Pudding & Coffee
Roast L.I. Boneless Duckling $225 |Fresh Peconic Bay Scallops- Fried,
Broiled or ^uteed Broiled Calves Liver,
Smothered in Onion or Bacon Roast Prime Ribs of Beef
plus our regular a la carte menuLimited a la Carte Menu also available
Ask about our facilities for Christmas Parties, and Affairs -ReservedUpen tor
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