With Election Day less than nine months away, the Nassau County Republican Party named its candidate for the county's top job. At a press conference at his home in East Meadow, Greg Peterson announced his bid for Nassau County Executive. Another candidate can come forward with the proper petitions to force a primary, however Nassau GOP spokesman Anthony Santino said Peterson is the party's choice.

Peterson has served as a councilman, supervisor and presiding supervisor of the Town of Hempstead. Since his retirement in 1998 after 26 years of public service, Peterson has been a principal in the Garden City law firm of Berkman, Henoch, Peterson & Peddy, where he has concentrated in business law.

"As a father, homeowner, taxpayer and businessman in Nassau County, it is clear that our county is at a crossroads. People are being taxed out of their homes by county tax increases and by the debilitating effects of the hidden tax of reassessment," Peterson said in announcing his candidacy.

Peterson was admitted to the New York Bar Association in 1971 with a law degree from St. John's University. In addition to his positions in elected office, he was chairman and CEO of Nassau Downs OTB, a member of the Nassau County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council and a former assistant district attorney.

During the 2001 campaign for county executive, the main issue was the county's finances as Nassau was in the midst of a fiscal mess. Four years later, the county's finances will also be a hot topic during the campaign.

Peterson, in announcing his candidacy, was critical of the Democratic majority of the legislature and Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi. "Since the Democrats took control of the county legislature in 2000 and were joined by Tom Suozzi in 2002, Nassau taxpayers have endured budget-busting tax increases at the county level. County-wide reassessments in many neighborhoods have sent taxes soaring," he said. "County taxpayers are paying the highest taxes in history while receiving county services that are, sadly, just shadows of what they once were."

Suozzi, who will most likely run for re-election, can counter with the fact that the county received bond upgrades from both Moody's and Standard & Poors in 2003. In addition, Suozzi presented two consecutive budgets that reflected no increase in county taxes.

"It was the evening of my 90th day in office. The county was facing a projected $428 million deficit by 2005. Under the threat of takeover by the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, I was ordered to present our plan to solve the County's fiscal crisis. I stood before the Nassau County Legislature, the members of the press and the public and after years of bad-news-phony budgets, bond rating downgrades, rumblings of bankruptcy, broken promises, bad priorities, depression and despair, I asked the people of Nassau to trust us - to pull together and move forward," said Suozzi in his 2005 budget presentation this past September. "We have balanced every budget. We have had surpluses each year. We have built 'rainy day' and other reserve funds of over $100 million. We have paid off over $100 million in debt early and we have received the stamp of approval from every independent analyst of the way we have conducted our financial affairs. In fact, we have achieved the lowest cash flow borrowing in over a decade."

- Joe Rizza