Middle-income New Yorkers aged 65 and older are likely to see a tax break next year from the sprawling federal tax and spending legislation, but tax analysts say Social Security income won’t be tax free, contrary to Trump campaign promises.

Keshia Clukey reports in NEWSDAY that the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4, includes a $6,000 tax deduction for seniors starting in the 2025 tax year and expiring by 2029. The deduction phases out for higher income levels, so single filers earning $175,000 or more and married filers earning $250,000 or more will not benefit.

In New York State, 3.7 million residents, or about 1 in 5, receive Social Security benefits, according to AARP.

Trump promised to eliminate the tax on Social Security benefits in his 2024 campaign, but tax analysts say that’s not what this bill does. Instead, it reduces income taxes for seniors on all incomes including Social Security, according to tax analysts.

"There’s some miscommunication," said Joseph Perry, a national tax leader in the Melville office of CBIZ, a national adviser of tax, accounting, advisory, benefits, insurance and technology services.

The bill will mean fewer seniors have to pay taxes, particularly when coupled with an increase in the standard deduction of $750 for single filers and $1,500 for married couples, Perry told Newsday. However, Barry A. Kaufmann, president of the New York State Alliance for Retired Americans, a senior advocacy group with 670,000 members representing retirees across the state, tells NEWSDAY, "Overall it’s a lousy bill. If you throw in a $6,000 sweetener, that doesn’t get rid of the pain that’s caused to seniors." Kaufmann also noted that the deduction ends in 2028, adding, "This is not a forever thing. It’s very limited in scope."

With more seniors paying less income taxes on their benefits, it means less revenue going toward Social Security’s two trust funds, policy experts and tax analysts said. Taxes on benefits make up a very small portion of the program’s total revenue, but the trust funds already are projected to run short if Congress doesn’t act, according to AARP.

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A pop-up event set to last three days ended after just 40 minutes this past Wednesday when East Hampton Village officials walked over to Herrick Park and found what one said looked like a car dealership with General Motors vehicles. East Hampton Village Administrator Marcos Baladron later described the move as a “trojan horse,” as the village had permitted an educational event. Jack Motz reports on 27east.com that Wednesday morning, General Motors event organizers began unloading equipment and supplies from trucks, as the company planned to showcase about a half dozen cars from its subsidiaries, including Cadillac and Chevrolet, for the next three days. The idea was to show the company’s portfolio of electric vehicles. Less than a minute into the first day, Larry Cantwell, a former village administrator and town supervisor, walked by and realized it was a pop-up marketing event for General Motors. Cantwell told Brad Billet, the president of the East Hampton Village Foundation, that he thought the event inappropriate. Not long after, Cantwell took to Facebook to ask: “New General Motors dealership opened today on Herrick Park. When will the exploitation end?” At around 2 p.m., Mayor Jerry Larsen announced on the village’s official Facebook page that leadership had revoked the permit for the car event because it was outside the scope of what it had originally permitted. By evening, the company had vacated the space.

The original application did not list General Motors. Instead, it gave the name of a limited liability company. The Village of East Hampton, then, gave the green light for an electric vehicle education program...not a sales event. General Motors provided a statement that said the company wishes to...

On sweltering summer mornings, while sprinklers spin atop freshly cut lawns, showers are taken and pools are filled across the North Fork, officials at the Suffolk County Water Authority hold their breath. Tara Smith reports in NEWSDAY that seasonal overpumping, driven by irrigation, puts the agency in the “danger zone” in Southold, threatening water quality and capacity for emergencies. Water usage in the Town of Southold has nearly doubled in the past two decades, according to data provided by the agency.

The water authority is proposing a new $35 million pipeline to pump water from the pine barrens north and then northeast to Southold Town on the North Fork as it tries to keep pace with demand. The proposal has sparked debate over conservation and development pressure in the region.

The pipeline, which officials hope to complete by 2030, would stretch 8.5 miles from Flanders in Southampton to the Southold town line, bringing up to 6,000 gallons per minute to boost supply and reduce stress on existing public wells. A second proposed phase would extend public water 3.8 miles from East Marion to Orient, the easternmost tip of the fork. The Suffolk County Water Authority is in the process of conducting an environmental review. Tensions over the proposal were on full display at a recent community forum in Peconic. There, Southold residents, environmental groups and elected officials said the increased demand for water shows a dire need for conservation — and that supplying more water could be a catalyst for development on the North Fork. About 70% of water pumped in the summer is for irrigation.

Surging demand at peak summer periods puts stress on the water supply, according to the Suffolk County Water Authority, which serves 9,500 properties in Southold from about 60 shallow wells. Straining the supply puts the wells at risk from saltwater intrusion and other contaminants and places the agency in the “danger zone,” Jeff Szabo, the authority's CEO, said in an interview.

The pipeline would allow water to be pumped from the "South Shore Low Zone" in the Town of Southampton, an area with deeper supply, officials said.

“Every morning, the area I’m concerned about is the North Fork, because when it’s hot … we have every well running,” Szabo said. “Our tanks are draining down to, at times, just a couple of feet.”

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An affordable housing developer who has worked with Southampton and East Hampton towns on several previous projects has proposed building a 40-unit rental apartment complex with a ground-floor retail space in Riverside. Georgica Green Ventures, a Jericho-based development firm, has applied to the Southampton Town Community Housing Fund for a $2.4 million grant to help cover the purchase cost of about an acre of land off Flanders Road near the Riverside traffic circle. Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that the Southampton Town Board will hold a public hearing on the CHF grant request on August 12 at 1 p.m. The town’s Community Housing Fund Advisory Committee has recommended that the town grant the funding award. The Community Housing Fund draws revenues from a half-percent sales tax on most real estate transactions and earmarks it for housing-related funding programs intended to increase the supply of residential units affordable to low and middle income residents increasingly priced out of the south fork housing market by soaring prices driven by second-home and investment markets. The project will not move forward until the planned Riverside sewage treatment plant is completed. The apartments would be built on three properties that Gerogica Green plans to purchase at 47 Flanders Road, just steps from the Riverside traffic circle and on the fringes of the land that the Town of Southampton has targeted to anchor the revitalization of the Riverside hamlet.

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This Saturday – tomorrow - is a chance to explore the 20...

Leaders on the East End agree that more affordable housing could prop up a year-round economy, legacy industries are worth preserving and infrastructure investments will strengthen the region. Tara Smith reports in NEWSDAY that though they differ on specific tactics, the five East End town supervisors emphasized unity during a panel discussion yesterday the Long Island Association moderated at East Wind Long Island in Wading River.

"We are all very different towns ... but we have a lot of the same issues," Riverhead Supervisor Tim Hubbard said. "Democrat or Republican ... at this level, it means the least. A good idea is a good idea."

Hubbard was joined by Amber Brach-Williams of Shelter Island, a fellow Republican, and Democratic Supervisors Al Krupski of Southold, Maria Moore of Southampton and Kathee Burke-Gonzalez from East Hampton for the "State of the East End" forum. All five are first-term supervisors who took office in 2024. Wednesday’s forum was the first to focus specifically on the East End, building on an effort by the Long Island Association to better support the region.

"You might just think Hamptons and mansions and millionaires, but the truth is, there are people that are bussing your table or working at the dry cleaner or a lifeguard at the beach and they can’t afford that million-dollar house," Matt Cohen, the president of the Long Island Association, said. "We really have to try to work together to fix these challenges." Some east end towns are eyeing ways to revamp zoning codes to accommodate more businesses and affordable housing on the twin forks.

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The Southampton Town Board unanimously approved a sweeping rezoning of a swath of Montauk Highway on the edge of downtown Hampton Bays this week.

Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that the move came barely a month after the legislation proposing the change was first introduced, and over the vociferous objections of a businessman - Joseph Lustberg, one of the owners of the cannabis company Mottz Green Grocer, which had designs on opening in the former North Fork Bank building in Hampton Bays. Lustberg had planned to open a cannabis dispensary that will now be forestalled by the new zoning rules. The vote this past Tuesday will rezone two dozen properties along Montauk Highway, all to the east of downtown Hampton Bays, which are currently in a highway business zone, to hamlet commercial, and two more from highway business to village business. The uses allowed in the hamlet commercial and village business zones encourage smaller-scale development of properties suitable for the transition areas surrounding downtown areas. Under Southampton Town code, cannabis dispensaries are only allowed in highway business zones. After a single public hearing session and a two-week comment period, which ended on Tuesday, the board added approval of the rezoning legislation to its agenda for this week’s meeting.

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Islip’s Long Island MacArthur Airport is slated to receive $3 million worth of security upgrades within the next eight months, according to town Aviation Commissioner Rob Schneider.

Sam Kmack reports in NEWSDAY that the Town of Islip announced yesterday that it was awarded a federal grant to cover the cost of the upgrades. They will include roughly 7 miles of improved fencing around the airport, and new security cameras around the perimeter.

Town Councilman John Lorenzo, the district representative for the airport, said the project, which has been in the works for about five years, is needed to “keep our airfields safe and secure for the future.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation funding will be used to replace the airport’s existing 6-foot fence with a new 8-foot fence topped with barbed wire.

The grant also will fund a “state of the art” security camera system along the airport’s boundaries.

The taller fence will help the