I was shocked to read Barbara Donno's factually faulty assault on Senator Craig M. Johnson's tenure as senator for the 7th District.

Her narrative was a blatant distortion of Senator Johnson's record using some all too familiar Republican Party fear tactics designed to deflect discussion of her own record.

Here are the facts.

Over the last two years, Senator Johnson secured a record $41 million in state aid increases for schools within the Seventh Senate District. Every school district has benefited from his efforts.

In 2007, Senator Johnson demonstrated his independence by breaking with his conference and joining the Senate Republicans in voting for a school aid package that benefited Long Island's children. When it was clear that plan was not going to pass both houses, Senator Johnson took the initiative and opened up his own negotiations with the executive branch. This helped lead to his district getting the largest percentage increase in school funding increases in all of Long Island.

New York's economy has been far worse this year than last, and the 2008 budget was a reflection of that. Even so, Senator Johnson was a vocal opponent of the Draconian school aid cuts that the Spitzer administration proposed and fought hard to get restorations. At the end of the day, his persistence paid off and the final budget plan was far superior to the executive proposal. It must be noted that this budget, where all school aid comes from, had enormous bipartisan support; joining Senator Johnson in voting for this budget were Senator Padavan, Senator Skelos, Assemblyman McKevitt, Assemblyman Alfano, and Assemblyman Walker, among others.

Barbara Donno's criticism of Senator Johnson's Triple Play Tax Relief plan is simplistic and flat-out untrue. Her contention that every Long Islander would lose their rebate check is intentionally misleading. What the Triple Play legislation does is replace the Middle Class STAR program, which gives rebate checks based on broad income categories and the school district a taxpayer lives in, with a STAR Circuit Breaker that actually issues rebate checks based on a taxpayer's exact income to their exact tax bill.

The result is that real tax relief goes to the people who need it the most. The average Nassau County family would actually receive a rebate check that is more than double the highest Middle Class STAR rebate in Nassau.

Seniors living on a fixed income, a group that generally pays among the highest portions of their income in property taxes, will be among the largest beneficiaries of the Triple Play. This is in addition to the benefits of Senior Enhanced STAR.

On a personal note, I had the good fortune of serving with Craig Johnson when he was a member of the Nassau County Legislature. While he and I did not always agree, I always respected his independence and commitment to the people he represented and to Nassau County. He is a strong advocate for his constituents and he always puts them first.

Diane Yatauro

Presiding Officer

Nassau County Legislature