The Next Generation and Nassau County

Over the last few months, Mr. Suozzi, our county executive, has made quite a to-do over the future of Nassau County. On facebook, in meet and greets publicized only to the most faithful supporters and at his (very few) public appearances, he has spoken about how he, and only he, can keep young people in Nassau County. I think that these claims need to be examined.

Mr. Suozzi has a flair for the dramatic. He's talked a lot about 'cool downtowns' and the Lighthouse. He's mentioned a bogus property tax revolution and talked about a turnaround. But let's examine each of these claims.

First, for talk about a property tax revolution, I refer you to three places. One is an earlier post where we debunked any talk of a property tax revolution as simple lies. The second is to your property tax bill. Compare the 2009 one with the 2001 one. You'll see that property taxes at the county level have gone up 76%. That's several times the rate of inflation. The third is to the NIFA plan. Go to EdMangano.com and download it. Read it. Or come back to this website every day and we'll highlight the important parts. But in two words -- we're broke. And thanks to Tom Suozzi and his political subsidiaries in the legislature and Comptroller's office, we're really broke. That's a fact; not spin.

Second, a 'cool downtown' isn't everything. To even suggest that the only reason young people and young families move to an area is because it has a hip downtown is insulting to those people. People factor a cool downtown into their decision. They also include property taxes, affordability, quality of life, schools, and neighborhood.

Nassau has the last three. But the first two? Forget it. Property taxes have made Long Island unaffordable. Put in all the lighthouses and cool downtowns you want. If you cannot afford to move into the neighborhood, you're going to move elsewhere. And what has Suozzi done to make Long Island affordable?

Nothing! Instead, he's raised taxes. He's allowed our roads to deterioate. He's turned the county government from a government out for the good of the people into something that is constantly looking for more 'revenue.' Translation -- TAXES!!!! The county can't suck enough out of strapped homeowners through the property tax system, so it hires a new assessor whose first action on the job is to rip homeowners who dare to question his department and appeal their inflated assessments. That doesn't work, so he raises the sales tax. Then he taxes home heating oil. Then red light cameras. What's next?

There's one more thing that I want to mention. That's jobs. That's the one thing people looking to settle down want. And that's a job and a steady economy.

Ask yourself. Are there more jobs on Long Island then there were 8 years ago? The answer's going to be no. And then compare Ed Mangano's record of job creation in Bethpage, where he brought 15,000 jobs into an area decimated by the closure of the Grumman plant with Tom Suozzi's. Suozzi's spent eight years creating jobs for his friends and contributors, jobs that you pay for. His Dad's firm makes a small mint off the reassessment program that he has refused to take on for years. By the way, Mayer Suozzi is a big backer of his various political intrigues.

Its time for government for the people, not the contributors and the connected. It's time we had a government that creates jobs, instead of creating a lot of talk for nothing. It's time Nassau County got a government dedicated to actually saving Nassau.

For our residents and young people....this is our last hope.