County Assessor Harvey Levinson, candidate for Hempstead Town supervisor, recently blasted current Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray for spending millions of dollars annually to support patronage jobs in Hempstead Town, noting that the supervisor employs 323 Republican committeemen on the Town's payroll at an average salary of more than $75,000.

"Kate Murray believes the taxpayers ought to support her political crony friends and even her own family. What most people don't know is that her father and brother work for the Town," he said during a recent press conference. "It's not right ... taxes are too high. Murray's patronage is costing taxpayers tens of millions each year. Murray's spending our money faster than Hempstead families can earn it."

Levinson said he discovered that Norman Murray, Supervisor Murray's father and a Republican committeeman, earns more than $100,000 annually as a legal assistant in the Town Attorney's office while her brother, Terrance, earns more than $62,000 a year in the Parks and Recreation Department as a physical conditioning specialist. Further, he claimed that of the 2,100 total employees in the Town, 15.4 percent are Republican committeemen. He cited several departments most heavily influenced - Parks and Recreation (84 committeemen-employees); Highway Department (40 committeemen-employees); and Sanitation (34 committeemen-employees).

Supervisor Murray called Levinson a "desperate candidate" without a message. "The tax assessor's bizarre attacks on town personnel practices are at variance with the facts," she said. "During my tenure as supervisor, the municipal workforce has been reduced by 6.5 percent. In fact, for every employee who has been hired since 2003, two workers have left town government. This has resulted in a savings of almost $10 million."

Levinson also criticized Supervisor Murray and the Town of Hempstead for not instituting strict rules against hiring relatives. "Most companies have strict rules against hiring your relatives and the Town of Hempstead shouldn't be any different. Employing relatives - especially your own father and brother - at such lavish salaries is simply not appropriate at a time when spending is out of control and taxes are incredibly high," he said.

Supervisor Murray shot back, stating, "If Mr. Levinson is truly interested in reducing government patronage, he need look no further than his own bloated county government," she said. "Of the 422 appointed positions in the county, over 25 percent reside outside of Nassau. What's more, recent DA investigations and arrests focus on whether certain county staffers even show up for their taxpayer-funded jobs. It's ironic that one of the best managed governments would come under fire by a member of Nassau County's dysfunctional government."