Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi delivered his sixth state-of-the-county address Tuesday evening, March 13. Among some of the topics Suozzi deemed important was the consolidation of government and the need to expand the tax base in the county.

"If we are to address our most serious problem of high property taxes, we must consolidate local governments and expand our tax base," Suozzi said in front of the members of the Nassau County Legislature.

It was five years ago when Suozzi, a Democrat, delivered his first state-of-the-county address at a time when, he said, the county was on the brink of bankruptcy, the bond ratings were in the basement, the fiscal monitors were demanding action, the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association (PBA) was gearing up for a multimillion dollar battle, the buildings were crumbling, the technology was in the stone age and the parks were a disgrace.

The county executive also stated that problems such as tax certiorari claims and the Nassau University Medical Center and state mandates such as Medicaid growing annually by 12 percent seemed insurmountable. But, he said, "We turned the county around. We took bold steps. We fought big battles. We took big risks and we succeeded because we risked failure."

Suozzi pointed out that the budget is now balanced, debt service is lower, bond ratings are higher than in 15 years and Nassau is the only county in New York State that has not raised taxes for four straight years. In addition, according to Suozzi, the county portion of the total tax bill was reduced from 22.7 percent in 2002 to 17.7 percent today.

Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman announced that the county achieved a budget surplus of $45.4 million in 2006, its fifth annual surplus under the Suozzi administration. However, the county comptroller warned that by the end of 2007, it is expected that the county reserves will be exhausted and that the county faces a $164 million structural gap in 2008.

Nassau County Legislature Minority Leader Peter Schmitt, a Republican, has been critical of the Suozzi administration since Suozzi became county executive in 2002. Schmitt once again was critical of the statements made in the state-of-the-county address. "We believe, as Republicans, that spending has spiraled out of control in this county," Schmitt said. "We find that the county executive proposes to raise taxes approximately 3.9 percent to cover the deficit as projected by the county comptroller...Since Mr. Suozzi has taken office, county taxes have increased 20 percent and county spending has increased over $739 million."

Suozzi, however, believes that the county's financial problems stemmed from the years of mismanagement under Republican leadership. He feels now is the time to focus on long-term challenges that affect the county's residents.

The county executive warned that if the leadership takes no action, taxes will continue to rise and young people will continue to leave and neighborhoods with poor schools and pockets of poverty will continue to falter.

Suozzi spoke about what he called the "2020 Vision for Nassau County" to address the property taxes, announcing that the county would embark on an aggressive new effort to consolidate over 400 separate governments to reduce costs and improve service. "Our goal is that by 2020, property taxes will no longer be the number one issue that chases our residents away from Nassau County," he said.

While Suozzi in the past has spoken about saving money for Nassau County taxpayers by increasing state aid to school districts and combating waste in the Medicaid system in his Fix Albany campaign, he will turn his attention to two other ways of addressing rising property taxes - government consolidation and the growth of the tax base.

Suozzi said since the county has 70 sewer and sewage-related districts, 26 commission-run water districts, nine town water districts, seven village water districts, two city water districts, three water pollution control districts, a water supply district and 31 communities served by private water companies as well as 56 school districts, which run 54 libraries, over 41 fire districts and 74 garbage collection entities, he would work to consolidate government. "Many special districts are archaic holdovers from a bygone era when population was sparse and budgets were small," he said.

In order to work toward the consolidation of government, Suozzi asked the county legislature to approve an allocation of $500,000 of the 2006 $45 million surplus to be used to develop a blueprint for government consolidation to go along with the $250,000 pledged by the Hagedorn Foundation. Suozzi also said Governor Eliot Spitzer has assigned his senior advisor Lloyd Constantine to spearhead the state's effort to work with government consolidation in the county. But, said Suozzi, "Any effort to reduce costs by consolidating government must also preserve home rule and local zoning control."

Schmitt was critical of the county executive's plan to consolidate districts. "Before the county executive starts attempting to consolidate special districts in other municipalities, why hasn't he consolidated parks, roads, overlapping services or intergovernmental services? Where are the highway consolidations with overlapping road maintenance and snow plowing by local municipalities he proposed? Where are the parks, beaches, and recreational consolidations we eagerly awaited? We heard the county executive two years ago announce a plan to consolidate schools and school services. To date, no answers and no results," the legislator said.

Another way Suozzi believes the county can alleviate its tax burden is through expanding the county's tax base. He believes in doing this through more office space with good paying, high-skilled or high-tech jobs, more affordable and diverse housing with nearby and walkable retail stores, shops and restaurants and more sports, entertainment and tourism opportunities. He then called on the county's town supervisors and city and village mayors to come together to agree upon the top 10 targeted areas for planned smart growth between now and 2020. He identified the former Grumman property in Bethpage, downtowns in Hicksville, Mineola and Freeport, the commercial strip on Hempstead Turnpike surrounding Belmont racetrack, the Glen Cove waterfront and the newly created Empire Zones in New Cassell, Inwood and Roosevelt, but he believes the Nassau County HUB should rank first. "The key to expanding our tax base and improving our quality of life is the redevelopment of the area surrounding the [Nassau] Coliseum, the revitalization of traditional downtowns surrounding train stations with mixed use, the recycling and re-use of brownfields and investment in our historically ignored, minority communities," the county executive said.

Not only does Suozzi strive to achieve a healthy economy, he also spoke about achieving a healthy county through initiatives that promote cleaner air, cleaner land, healthy water and the preservation of open space such as the Meyer's family farm in Woodbury, which he announced the county has purchased the development rights to keep it as a farm, as well as the establishment of an organic farm at the Old Bethpage Restoration Village.

Suozzi is also calling for healthier residents, saying that the county can persue a state-authorized cigarette tax modeled after New York City and a ban on trans-fats in restaurants, the labeling of calorie counts on menus and encourage nutrition education in schools.

"If we are to truly have 2020 vision, we cannot be blinded by fear, inaction or partisanship," he said. "Our hope is that in 2020, people will look back and see the dramatic turnaround in our county of the past five years and they will see that it did not stop here. We went further, setting ambitious goals that those before us either refused or were unable to tackle."