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Levy also announced that major crime (the categories of murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft) in Suffolk has been reduced by 8.3% for 2009 over 2008.
Smart Government
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Levy will establish a Long Island Purchasing Consortium, inviting Nassau County, local municipalities in both counties, school districts and not-for-profit organizations to take advantage of the benefits and economies of scale. It is believed the local consortium can attract more competitive pricing on supplies, equipment and commodities, from local and regional bidders, than is found on the statewide purchasing list.
Levy was introduced by Stony Brook University President Dr. Samuel Stanley and Brookhaven Supervisor Mark Lesko for the 45-minute speech which was televised live on News12 and on FIOS 1.
In A Suffolk State of Mind. Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy delivering his seventh State of the County address, Wednesday evening February 3, from the Charles B. Wang Asian-American Center at Stony Brook University.
Excerpts from Suffolk State of the County Address
On Budgeting and Management
Yes, like the rest of the country, the state of our county last year was indeed perilous. But thanks to the immediate, aggressive and decisive action we took in a bi-partisan fashion, we ended the year with a surplus, with all of our services in tact and I was able to submit a budget for 2010 that froze county general fund property taxes for the sixth year in a row.
Think about it: an executive budget with no tax increases, no layoffs and no disruption of our services. How did we do it, while others could not?
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It is essential that government continues to tighten our belts, just as private businesses do and just as families do.
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Aesop taught us the fable of the grasshopper and the ant. While the grasshopper sang, danced and played all summer long, the ant worked diligently to store food and prepare for the winter. We in government must always be aware that even in the good times, our role is that of the ant – to prepare for the difficult times ahead.
For we did not weather the economic crisis of 2009 just in 2009. We prepared for the oncoming storm in 2008, and 2007, and in the years before that by shaping a leaner, more efficient county government.
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A smarter government means we don’t have to sustain a larger government. While many municipalities these days are doing less with less, Suffolk County has been able to do more with less. Our smart government policies actually enable us to maintain, and in many cases, enhance our services, while not having to always ask the taxpayers to dig deeper into their pockets.
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So, to people who would say you can’t enhance a service without inflating the size of government, increasing spending or raising taxes, I say: “You haven’t seen us work in Suffolk County.”
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On Economic Development
To sustain us into the future, these are the times we must continue to enhance economic development, expand our tax base and keep our economy thriving.
Last year, Canon was reconsidering its decision to locate its North American headquarters to Melville. Facing the loss of 2,000 high-quality jobs, my administration, working with the Town of Riverhead, took immediate action to transfer additional Empire Zone credits to the property and that ensured that Canon would indeed build right here in Suffolk County
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And we’re working to protect our coveted fishing industry. Over the last decade, federal quotas which were based on arbitrary and inaccurate data from the 1980s have been terribly unfair to our commercial fishermen. As a result, fishermen in Connecticut, New Jersey, and the northeast coast are able to take far more fish than Long Island fishermen. I have commissioned a study that will detail this inequity to the federal government. Long Island’s own Billy Joel has romanticized the allure of this marvelous trade which is deeply engrained in the history of this great county. We live on an Island, and it is vital to our economic wellbeing that we restore our commercial fishing industry to its former glory.
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And an exciting new vision is emerging for the Ronkonkoma transit hub, as we work with Brookhaven and Islip Town officials and state leaders to plan a transit-oriented development that will include hundreds of residential units above street-level retail space – all within walking distance of the Long Island Railroad’s Main Line Ronkonkoma station.
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On Wyandanch Sewers
We are working with Supervisor Steve Bellone to reconfigure Straight Path, from a double lane highway into a single-lane, walkable retail sector. But we all know that downtowns cannot grow without sewers. And perhaps no place is this more evident than in Wyandanch.
Funding from the Town of Babylon and from the federal government, through Senator Schumer’s efforts, will go a long way towards the sewer infrastructure improvements we need in Wyandanch. But to ensure success of these efforts, I am announcing tonight a program that will waive Suffolk County sewer connection fees for any qualified urban renewal commercial or residential developments in the Wyandanch corridor for the next five years.
This represents an 11 million dollar investment by Suffolk County into the economic revitalization of a community that wants to thrive -- a community that needs to thrive -- but has been held back by the lack of available sewers. I firmly believe that 20 years from now, when we marvel at the renaissance of Wyandanch, we will look back to this county investment as one of the best decisions we’ve made.
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On Master Plan
How Suffolk County will look in the year 2025 will greatly depend on the decisions we make in the next few years. Where will people work? Where will people live? How will they get between the two? What will be the condition of our groundwater and our waterways? To help us identify our goals, and determine how we will achieve them, I have ordered an update of the county’s Comprehensive Master Plan. The first step in this process will be a series of forums hosted throughout the county this year, and we welcome all residents to participate because ultimately, this plan is your plan.
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On Land Preservation
We are now heading into a critical stage for preserving what’s left. Over this upcoming year I will engage with not-for-profit environmental organizations to identify as many environmentally pristine properties as possible, and enlist these agencies into working with property owners to get us to contract.
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On Federally Qualified Health Centers
And in 2010, we can again pursue a path that simultaneously saves money and enhances health services. Here’s how. Federal law allows for local governments to establish Federally Qualified Health Centers in diverse and economically challenged areas. These centers are eligible for additional aid – money that will allow us to enhance service. We convened a task force that will shortly be reporting its analysis of this system. Let this be the year that this well-proven system of enhancing health care, improving quality of services and including members of the community comes to Suffolk County.
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On Heroin
But when our youth are gripped by addiction, they need our help more than ever. Improvements in the medical field now allow some addicted patients to receive treatment from their own family doctor. A drug called Suboxone has been shown in some cases to be more effective than methadone, and it is available through a simple prescription. This medication blocks the high of heroin and opiates, and helps suppress the craving. We will be embarking on a groundbreaking initiative to make Suboxone available through our health centers, coupled with support and counseling. When it comes to getting our youth off of heroin, we will not raise a white flag. We will be victorious.
Parents have also been frustrated by the inability to get in-patient treatment for their children. Let’s commit together right here and now as a top priority to insist that the State Legislature change the insurance law and help more of our addicted sons and daughters have immediate access to the treatment they desperately need.
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On Reforming Rockefeller Reforms
While we are fighting so hard to keep drug dealers off the street, be forewarned that problems lurk ahead if the new Rockefeller drug law reforms are left unchecked. Those reforms that eliminated draconian twenty-five year sentences for simple drug possession were indeed justified. But these changes went too far, so that now a violent drug dealer or a burglar can often avoid jail time by simply declaring that they are an addict. And get this, he can even have three previous convictions expunged from his record. Both District Attorney Tom Spota and I want to promote rehabilitation. We want to give people a second chance. But what we don’t want to do is give a violent drug dealer a get out of jail free card. Without the threat of serious jail time, a hardened drug dealer has no incentive to give up information on his network. Some parts of the Rockefeller drug law reforms were well intentioned and laudable. Nevertheless it is time to reform the reforms and give back to the district attorneys the discretion that they need to keep us safe.
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On Harsher Gang Penatlies
Let’s also give our prosecutors the greatest ability possible to crack down on violent gangs. Gangs today are not like those depicted in Happy Days or Grease. They are in many ways organized crime operations. They are big-money enterprises, and they are downright ruthless. These gangs seek to take over entire neighborhoods. We can not and will not allow this to happen. Gangs must be treated like organized crime under the law. We loosened the grip of organized crime through federal racketeering statutes. We should do the same when it comes to combating gangs. Harsher penalties should be put in place for any crimes that are committed in furtherance of gang activity. The best way to keep our streets safe from gangs is to get gang members off of our streets.
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Conclusion
A great deal was accomplished last year. Even though we faced a horrendous recession and lost 100 million dollars in revenues, we pulled together as Democrat and Republican, executive and legislator, management and union, to make the tough decisions. I submitted yet another tax freeze budget. And while we fared better than most in 2009 due to our strong fiscal management, no one really knows yet how quickly the national economy will recover this year. And in 2011, we face an unstable state budget, a huge increase in pension costs mandated by the state and a loss of over 40 million dollars in federal stimulus money. We must again work like the ant and prepare for the worst, even as we hope for the best.
Given the many unknowns in the year ahead, I have again ordered departments to hold up to ten percent of their expenditures in reserve. Innovations such as private-public partnerships and consolidations must all be discussed. None of us have all of the answers. But collectively we all must have enough answers that we can put into action and save this county from going the same route as New York State, California and municipalities around the nation that have dramatically increased taxes or imposed severe service cuts.