Our local leaders deserve our support
Last week, I focused on how Long Island taxpayers were lucky to have two county executives who, despite being from different political parties, were doing everything in their power to save their respective counties.
Ed Mangano and Steve Bellone are fighting to keep Nassau and Suffolk Counties afloat, and they’re doing it by making tough decisions and making cuts, and not by raising taxes.
It is truly refreshing to see this type of leadership, especially given that on the federal level, you have agencies spending and acting like drunken sailors. Our local governments are getting it right.
Take Bellone. Suffolk County lawmakers recently approved a measure to lay off 315 government workers by July 1. This is part of Bellone’s fiscally conscious plan to close a projected $160 million budget gap this year. He’s dealing with a cumulative projected budget gap of over $500 million by 2013.
The Legislature passed Bellone’s layoff plan, which is expected to save taxpayers $11.4 million.
In his first year as county executive, Bellone was forced to take tough actions. So far, he has proposed measures to slash the deficit by $160 million. During his State of the County address, he announced that he would be freezing his salary and those of 16 top deputies, a move that will save approximately $100,000 this year. He actually took a $21,000 pay cut, saying, “I will not ask others to sacrifice or to do more with less unless I am willing to do so myself.”
Bellone didn’t stop there. In a bold move, he ordered those top deputies to contribute between 15 and 25 percent of the cost of their health insurance, a measure that will save taxpayers $83,000 over the next year. That’s not small change.
Bellone is hopeful that the message of sacrifice starting at the top will trickle down through the rest of the county.
If, by the grace of God, labor unions agree to also pay up to 25 percent of their health care costs, that would produce annual savings of $26 million.
