In his first term, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi rescued the county from the brink of bankruptcy and lifted its bond rating to investment grade from near junk level. But now he faces the toughest fight of his career, that of reducing school taxes. Nassau County has the highest local taxes and the highest paid teachers in the nation.

Any attempt by Suozzi to limit teachers' salaries and benefits, which have been rising at three times the inflation rate, will unleash an avalanche of protest from the teachers union, the biggest spending and most powerful lobby in Albany.

Suozzi should resist efforts by school administrators to seek more state aid. New York State has been facing a fiscal crisis; earlier this year the state had to delay income tax refunds because the money ran out. State aid to schools has increased each year and is now at record levels. The problem is that school budgets are rising at an outrageous rate while school officials complain they are getting a smaller percentage of state aid.

Suozzi's reply to school administrators should be: reduce spending, make schools more cost-effective, cut the bloated staff and the ridiculous extra pay that 90 percent of the teachers receive, put a lid on salaries. How could a public school district pay a kindergarten teacher $105,000 for working nine months a year?

Here are some statistics for Suozzi to think about: Nassau County teachers' salaries are 60 percent higher than the average pay of public school teachers in the United States. In one Nassau County school district, more than 32 percent of the teachers have salaries of over $100,000, the school superintendent is paid more than the vice president of the US and a high school teacher who coaches sports has a paycheck of $122,000 plus 23 percent in benefits.

Meanwhile, Tom Suozzi who is at the helm 24 hours, seven days a week, makes $109,394 a year or about $37 an hour by my estimate while the above high school teacher gets $75 per hour and is given a raise every year whether he's the top performer in the school or the least capable; his tenure shield is matched only by that of federal judges. On the other hand, Suozzi has no powerful union to protect him and if he doesn't do a good job, voters can boot him out of office.

George Rand