I am responding to Minority Leader Peter Schmitt's Legislative Report, as seen on Friday, Dec. 13, in the Anton newspapers, I am a resident of Nassau County who would like a chance to respond to a few of Mr. Schmitt's criticisms concerning Nassau County Democrats.

After many years of controlling the Office of the County Executive, it seems that Minority Leader Peter Schmitt and his fellow Republican colleagues have forgotten why Nassau County Democrats have had to institute high taxes along with high spending increases. Let us remind Mr. Schmitt that it was during the Republican control that we began one of our worst budget crises ever. While other cities, towns and counties across the nation were enjoying budget surpluses, Nassau County, while being one of the richest counties in the nation, had one of the worst budgets, ultimately leading to an independent agency monitoring our every move. As we recall, in 2001, Nassau County residents got to their breaking point with the Republicans and looked for a change in its direction by electing Tom Suozzi.

In his article, Minority Leader Schmitt continues to blame the Democrats for failing to act on "his" legislative agenda to help the people of Nassau County. One such bill Nassau Republicans have proposed is a bill that will allow Nassau County employees ample time to recover after donating lifesaving bone marrow or organs. While this seems like a good piece of legislation, Mr. Schmitt goes on to blame Democrats for the deaths of people waiting on transplant lists. This is rather ludicrous since his bill focuses primarily on the donors, not the recipients, nor those on a waiting list. Mr. Schmitt's inference that lives have been lost while waiting for a donor due to the lack of this bill's passing is absurd.

Minority Leader Schmitt continues to make some reasonable legislative requests in his article. However, there is one piece of legislation, which I found to be unnecessary and a waste of time. Nassau Republicans have sent to the Democrats a bill that will give residents of Nassau County a tax-exemption when purchasing an American flag. Is making American flags tax-exempt going to motivate us to become more patriotic or buy more flags? Maybe, instead, the focus should be on introducing legislation which will have a deeper impact on the residents of Nassau County.

Mr. Schmitt, if you want legislative initiatives to pass through the Democrat Majority, then you need to follow these three simple steps. First, you need the money to fund each of these programs. Next, you need to introduce legislation that will make a real impact on the lives of Nassau County residents. And, finally, stop packaging your legislative ideas with finger pointing and blame, and focus on their purpose instead.

Adam J. Nitkin

Plainview resident