The Town of Hempstead has become a refuge for politicians who were booted out of office by voters. A congressman and an assemblyman who lost their jobs are already on the town's payroll. Now former Nassau County Comptroller Fred Parola, ousted in his re-election bid last November, has joined Hempstead's bureaucracy at a salary of $95,000.

While Parola was Nassau's fiscal watchdog, the county went into financial meltdown and its bonds hit near-junk level. In a rating of the nation's largest counties, Nassau came in dead last for fiscal management.

Instead of spending our tax money to support defeated politicians, Town of Hempstead Supervisor Rich Guardino should cut costs by eliminating, rather than inflating, agencies that are duplicated among the Town and Nassau County.

Also, Guardino could do better by hiring more housing inspectors to track down illegal rentals that are overloading facilities and are a factor in school taxes skyrocketing.

Just two weeks ago, the Franklin Square Elementary School District issued $14,425,000 in bonds to cover the cost of additions and improvements to school buildings. Over the next 20 years, residents and their children will have to pay this back plus about $8,000,000 in interest. How much of this could have been saved if Rich Guardino had made a real effort to root out illegal housing?

George Rand