Tom Suozzi's New Suburbia

Well, its finally come out. Tom Suozzi's vaunted New Suburbia is nothing more than the Jersey Rules of Thumb under a New Boss in a new state. These allegations are shocking by themselves, and are inexcusable.

But the most shocking thing is how Suozzi has systemically brought to the county. While in government there are sure to be occassional lapses -- an occassional lapse can be excused as an accident. Not so here. There were repeated violations -- for at least two fundraisers. Suozzi apparently made it his business to dissapear during the day and encourages his underlings to lie. The CE doesn't have a cell phone? That's almost as believable as the Tammany official who collected hundreds of thousands in bribe dollars in a magic box and claimed that he 'saved it.'

And the media is complicit in this disaster. They've abdicated their responsibility to report on these things. They ignore all mention of Suozzi's fiscal hijinks, and bury his public corruption under the carpet. Newsday, as the local paper, has a responsibility it continues to shirk. The Times has ignored it, devoting its shrinking Metro space to covering private lawsuits over similar harrassment at Bloomberg LP.

Furthermore, where exactly is the Nassau DA and the EDNY US Attorney? Public corruption is rightly targeted as the most nefarious ill public officials could inflict on the people. And here we have systematized campaign activity being conducted on public time. So much so that people made jokes about it. In New Jersey, we'd have had some indictments already.

I've always looked on public service as the most noble calling. People like Ed Mangano, a guy who could do something else and make a lot more money with no public scrutiny, were always something that I admired.

Suozzi has a different definition. His goal is to get somewhere fast. He wants to be governor. He's willing to loot the county to get there. He spends most of his time campaigning for other offices or chasing headlines as the chairman of Paterson's Property Tax committee -- an ironic position for a man who is the greatest taxer in county history. He'd rather be playing political games with minor parties than govern.

Perhaps this is why our county is in such miserable financial shape. We're one of the highest taxed counties in New York and the nation. Yet, we're still broke. Suozzi rams through an increase of the sales tax, and the condition gets worse. So, he hits everyone in the pocket by taxing home heating oil. When does it end?

Well, what's the result of this lawsuit? The county is likely to have to pay a multimillion dollar judgment. In fact, if you run something called a verdict search on similar cases, I think you'd see that similar cases could go into seven or eight figures. So, don't be surprised if we have to pay out many millions to cover Tom Suozzi's political operation.

And our taxes go up yet again.