County finances and the affect the Nassau County Legislature has on the Massapequa community are just two of the issues facing Legislator Peter Schmitt and Carl Lowe, two longtime residents of the Massapequa community, who are running against each other, in the upcoming November election, for the right to represent the 12th Legislative District.

Schmitt, running on the Republican, Independence, Conservative, and Right-to-Life party lines, has been in the county legislature since it began on Jan. 1, 1996. In his tenure, Schmitt has been active in both the county as deputy presiding officer of the legislature and in the district, which covers Massapequa and Massapequa Park. A resident of Massapequa since 1970, the 49-year-old legislator has been a homeowner in the community since 1972.

Lowe, who is running on the Democratic and Liberal party lines, challenged Schmitt in 1997 and ran for the 12th Assembly District in 1996. He has been a resident of Massapequa Park since 1957. Lowe, 59, attended Birch Lane Elementary School and graduated from Massapequa High School before attending Yale and then eventually buying the house which he grew up in in Massapequa Park from his parents.

Professionally, Lowe is a writer and editor. He has authored approximately a dozen books on politics, economics and health. He is currently the executive editor of Energy Times, a health magazine. He also writes a column called Washington Update, which covers national health issues in government. He has also been active in the local community, coaching soccer with the Massapequa Soccer Club for about seven years as well as being a member of the Massapequa Road Runners Club. Lowe adds, "I took part in the effort; maybe two years ago, to keep the Bethpage trails open for running and biking, they were going to expand the golf facilities there." Despite prior losses in the political arena, Lowe feels that he has a good chance as he enters this election.

Schmitt is also very confident as he enters the political season, listing his many local projects as his major accomplishments as a legislator. He stated, "In the past three and a half years, I have brought many projects home to Massapequa that were never done before such as the rehabilitation and replacing of the sewage pumping station, south of Merrick Road. That's a $10 million improvement that should have been done in the '80s, it was neglected, it was never done, nobody was ever able to get the approval from the county to get it done, I did it. It's under way right now." Other accomplishments, said Schmitt, include, "The Operation Downtown, which is the single biggest improvement to hit downtown Massapequa in 30 years, putting in new curbs and brickwork and decorative, old-fashioned lighting and benches and planters, it's about $600,000 worth of improvements from start to finish. I brought it home."

Additional projects that Schmitt points to as happening because of his involvement, include, the beautification of Merrick Road, which he coordinated with local civic groups and arranged for county finances for; the redesign of the entrance to the Massapequa Preserve; and getting approval to supply the Massapequa Water District with county land to build a ninth well to serve the future needs of the water district without impacting on the purity of the underground aquifer.

County finances have been the major focus of this year's legislative elections. In a year where the legislature has been working to reduce the $300 million county deficit, many incumbents are facing criticism from their opponents and even their constituents for the role that the legislature has played in these fiscal difficulties.

Lowe points to the fiscal health of Nassau County as being the overriding issue that caused him to run for county legislature this year. "I'm really concerned about the future of the county and the way the budget's been mismanaged by Tom Gulotta, with the assistance of Peter Schmitt, who's been in the legislature the last four years and has been okaying the budget that Mr. Gulotta has proposed, even though people like Fred Parola, the Republican Comptroller of the county has called these budgets smoke and mirrors. My primary concern in deciding to run was to try to do something about the way the finances have been managed."

Schmitt feels that without his role in the legislature the county would be in an even worse financial position. "The three county budgets that I've had a hand on in the last three years since I've been on the legislature, cuts county spending by $108 million and I am one of the leading architects of the Legislature's Deficit Reduction Plan that we came out with two weeks ago, which is an unprecedented break in the 100 year history of Nassau County, the legislative body, neither the board of supervisors nor the county legislature had ever put forward a spending plan, we call it a guideline but it's really demands of what will be in the county budget to solve this deficit that Gulotta has once and for all."

As the challenger, Lowe has his own ideas about what can be done to correct the county finances. "The first thing I would do is push for a fiscal oversight board that would have the legal authority to make sure that when Tom Gulotta proposes a budget, that it's really a balanced budget, that clearly explains where the money is being spent, how it's being spent and really takes a penetrating look at running the county more efficiently. Right now there's no oversight board that really takes a close look at the county budget," stated Lowe. He went on to say that he had looked at the budget with some other people and found that, "It's written more to be confusing than to explain things." Lowe said, if he were elected to legislature, he would push to have a line-by-line review of what's in the budget. "Right now the county is about $2.5 billion in debt, aside from running about a $300 million deficit this year," said Lowe. "I think there's a great reliance on bonds to keep the county going. That's why, for instance, Wall Street has lowered the rating on Nassau County bonds. My feeling is, it's kind of indefensible that we're in the middle of this great prosperity and the county is on the verge of fiscal disaster ... to me it's kind of frightening to leave the leadership in the hands of the same people who brought us to this near disaster."

Schmitt said that he believes that after the election is over the legislature is going to have to continue to carefully monitor and take a much more active role in monitoring the day-to-day operations of the county to ensure that the county comes out of this fiscal situation and does not slip back into the same problems.

When asked how the county fiscal problems, that occurred under Republican leadership, would affect his campaign for re-election, Schmitt responded, "I'm sure it's going to have an effect on everybody's campaign but I have a lot of confidence in the people, in their common sense and their ability to understand what's going on. They know who got us here and they know who is in charge of the budget on a day-to-day basis, my only input on the budget, over the last three years, has been to cut spending by $108 million." Without those cuts, according to Schmitt, the county's financial problems may not have been able to be solved.

As a Democrat, Lowe feels the problems that have occurred under the Republican leadership will be a benefit to his campaign. "I've been going door-to-door, talking to the voters and a lot of people and I've had people tell me that they've voted straight Republican all their life and they think that Republicans should lose their jobs over the mess they've made out of the county finances, so I think I have a very good chance," concluded Lowe.

Schmitt concluded, "I'm very proud of my record and I will put my record down against my opponent's qualifications and let the people make their choice."

The election in the 12th Legislative District will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 2.