County Executive Biography

Steve Levy is a graduate of SachemHigh School, StonyBrookUniversity (Magna Cum Laude) and St. John’sUniversityLawSchool. In 1985 Levy was elected to the Suffolk County Legislature at age 26 – the beginning of a 15-year tenure as a member of that body. During this time he served as Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and as Deputy Presiding Officer. He left the Suffolk Legislature after 2000 when he was elected a member of the New York State Assembly. In November 2003, Mr. Levy was elected as SuffolkCounty’s seventh CountyExecutive.

County Executive Levy has been a proactive executive successfully reinvigorating the County with his “smart government principles” and good government reforms.

The Levy administration lived up to its motto of professionalizing government by hiring the best and the brightest with an emphasis placed on expertise rather than party affiliation.

Mr. Levy is a fiscal conservative whose “do more with less” philosophy helped pull the county out of the $238 million budget hole he inherited upon taking office. He crafted the largest budget restructuring plan in the county’s history, saving over $120 million by cutting unnecessary travel vouchers and cars doled out for political purposes, and reducing upper management salaries, including his own. This penny-conscious approach helped him provide six straight general fund property tax cuts or tax freezes in the six years he has been in office. His strong fiscal management helped Suffolk earn its highest bond rating in county history and maintain that rating during the national economic crisis in 2008. Three of Levy’s budgets have seen spending reduced from the previous year, something never before done in Suffolk’s history.

Steve is making the county more affordable not only by cutting taxes but also by increasing the stock of housing through his Workforce Housing Commission that has already facilitated the construction and planning of over 1,000 units of workforce housing in Patchogue, Southold, Bellport, and Yaphank with thousands to come in Brentwood and other locations. He was granted the prestigious Woodson Award from the federal government as one of the top four elected officials nationwide in promoting affordable housing for the next generation.

The county executive has also transformed a scandal-ridden, dormant open space program into one of the most aggressive preservation programs in the nation. Mr. Levy has banned outside business conflicts, placed the program under the guidance of an established environmentalist, and created a master list of environmentally sensitive properties and farmland parcels targeted for acquisition and/or preservation. He also helped broker a $75 million open space bond and created a $100 million Environmental Legacy Fund to be used for partnership acquisitions of open space and farmland.  Since Mr. Levy’s first day in office, Suffolk has preserved over 5,500 acres – six and one-half times the size of New York’s Central Park – and 65 farms. Mr. Levy was presented with the Environmentalist of the Year Award from the New York League of Conservation Voters.

County Executive Levy has also undertaken numerous initiatives involving alternative energy including retrofitting numerous county buildings (saving $2 million in energy costs), requiring solar panels on county buildings and replacing the county fleet with hybrid vehicles. Steve’s leadership in this area has earned him awards from the Sierra club and the Nassau-Suffolk Neighborhood Network.

Mr. Levy has also won acclaim for the county’s landmark program to revive the hard clam and scallop populations of the Great South Bay and the PeconicBay, making significant strides during his short time in office through collaborative seeding projects with local conservation groups.

As county executive, Steve Levy cut taxes while maintaining important human services. Bus routes have been increased, pre-natal deaths reduced and troubled youth were afforded a unique crisis intervention program as an alternative to being institutionalized, keeping families intact and saving millions of dollars.

New reforms implemented in the Police Department, including schedule changes and the creation of a new narcotics unit, helped reduce Part I and II crimes in Suffolk by over 20 percent, and aided in its ranking as one of the safest suburban regions in the nation, all while keeping the police district budget within the tax cap parameters for the first time in years.

The county executive’s “Smart Management” policies have garnered almost 40 major awards from the National Association of Counties over the last few years, and he was one of four local officials nationwide to be recognized for a commitment to workforce housing and was the recipient of the New York League of Conservation Voters 2006 Environmentalist of the Year award. In addition, he was elected president of the New York Association of County Executives for 2008 by his peers of fellow county executives across New YorkState.

The tax cuts, the enhanced services and the courteous, prompt response to constituent needs all stem from the motto carved on the sign that greets all visitors to the executive chambers. It reads: “We Work For You.”