The Town of North Hempstead recently issued its 2007 tentative budget. An analysis of that budget raises many areas of concern and examples of how Supervisor Jon Kaiman and his administration just don't get it.

Despite the ongoing grand jury and Nassau District Attorney investigations into improprieties in the town's building department, the town has continued to fail to budget for the hiring of any additional code enforcement or zoning personnel. The ongoing investigations, and public statements by the supervisor and others in the administration, confirm that the building department is inadequately staffed yet nothing is being done to address this. For the past three years, Councilman [Angelo] Ferrara has consistently called for the hiring of at least five additional code enforcement officers, a call that has gone unheeded. Now, it is more imperative than ever for the supervisor to re-align his priorities to address this most pressing concern.

The 2007 budget, as proposed, includes an across the board town tax increase of approximately 5 percent. This would bring the cumulative increases in town property taxes under this administration over the past ten years to over 150 percent, well above the rate of inflation, and far higher than all other towns in Nassau County. Almost all of this tax increase is going to pay for increased salaries for patronage and other employees, including the most highly paid employees and officials. This is outrageous.

Supervisor Kaiman explained last year's massive pay raises for himself and other officials as justified because, in his words, "We deserve it." This past year's events have demonstrated that neither Supervisor Kaiman, nor many others in this administration certainly do not deserve the high salaries that they are collecting. There is no reason why North Hempstead's supervisor should be the highest paid town supervisor in New York State, particularly since his administration is rife with scandal and impropriety. The bottom line is that the administration has caused many of our communities to suffer from overcrowding, overdevelopment and other conditions that have reduced our quality of life. North Hempstead officials should give the money back by rolling back those unwarranted pay raises and giving North Hempstead taxpayers some relief.

As services in North Hempstead continue to decline, the town continues to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year on frivolous expenses and pet projects, like the "311 system" which has been one of the biggest and most expensive sham projects in recent memory. Until the town gets its spending under control, and gets its house in order and its priorities straight, North Hempstead residents should not be asked to pay one more cent than they are already paying.

The budget also contains overly optimistic revenue assumptions. For example, projections in golf course operation revenue and mortgage tax receipts are imprudently aggressive and will be near impossible to attain. The likelihood of a deficit in 2007 is high, meaning that more massive tax increases could be in store for town residents in 2007 and beyond.

Also, by combining the town's highway and park funds, the budget omits year-to-year comparison columns so that prior year spending and revenue is hidden from taxpayers. The town could easily have (and should have) included pro forma financial data from prior years to allow residents to be able to compare this year's proposal to past years. In any event, it is clear that North Hempstead taxpayers have certainly not been getting their money's worth.

We expect Councilman Ferrara to hold the majority's feet to the fire and demand, among other things, (I) the hiring of at least ten more code enforcement and zoning personnel, (II) a roll-back of all elected official pay raises implemented in the past two years, as well as at least a 20 percent reduction in all patronage appointee pay, (III) reassessment and adjustment of projected revenue figures to make them reasonable, (IV) an across-the-board 10 percent expense cut in all non-essential areas in all departments and the streamlining of all personnel and cost centers, and (V) the issuance of a "Full Disclosure Budget" that includes complete and accurate information necessary for the taxpayers to compare year over year.

Peter I. Cavallaro

Chairman, North Hempstead Republican Committee