In the coming Nassau County election we have the opportunity to elect Judi Bosworth to the position of town supervisor.
Mrs. Bosworth brings a wealth of experience and accomplishment both as a legislator and an executive. Just as important, Mrs. Bosworth has shown considerable sensitivity to public needs and is a consensus builder, qualities we have not seen enough of among public officials.
Lee Seeman, seeking re-election to the Town Council, has served the public well and deserves another term in office.
The present administration of Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano and Comptroller George Maragos has made meaningful improvements that have stabilized county finances and kept property taxes in check.
Contract supervision has been tightened substantially, helping to eliminate over $300 million in waste and fraud. County emphasis on job creation has helped to promote economic gains and to reduce unemployment to 5.9 percent (the lowest in the state) as well as boost sales tax revenues.
Such increased revenues coupled with reduced spending has enabled the county to reduce its borrowing and raise its cash balances by 35 percent to over $80 million. Although we are not out of the woods yet, these efforts, in my opinion, are moving us strongly in the right direction.
Among the other candidates, voters are being asked by former County Executive Tom Suozzi and former Comptroller Howard Weitzman to return them to office after their defeat four years ago.
That defeat was the result, in my opinion, of an eight-year record of arrogance, incompetence and deceit that left the county on the brink of financial and environmental disaster.
In their present campaigns, neither Mr. Suozzi nor Mr. Weitzman offers a single plan, a single program, or even the germ of an idea to advance the fortunes of the county.
Their idea of a campaign consists entirely of hurling vague and unsubstantiated accusations at the opposition.
Looking back, the Suozzi/Weitzman administration squandered a $400 million budget surplus, starved the county’s Sewer Authority for critical maintenance and repair (to the point literally of near-explosion), attempted to induce Great Neck to shut down its own well-run sewage treatment plant in favor of a cynical and dangerous scheme to pipe the stuff 20 miles away to the South Shore (for a healthy fee, of course), directly in the path of disastrous hurricane storms.
Mr. Suozzi hired a consultant for half a million dollars to plan for the wholesale consolidation of local governments. Mr. Weitzman spent a lot of time conspiring with an upstate Assemblyman to introduce legislation to do just that (legislation that was enacted and signed into law) all the while assuring county residents that he would never support any action to eliminate local governmental control.
Meanwhile, Mr. Weitzman did little or nothing effective as comptroller, the job for which he was hired.
Does it make sense now to resurrect these two ghosts of the past?
Leon Korobow
Great Neck
