Insurance CEO murder renews focus on CT's 'ghost gun' ban

Free home visits for newborns expanding in Connecticut

Former State Rep. Jack Hennessy dies at 73

Power & Politics: Jodi Rell’s legacy; the reopening of Norwalk’s I-95 overpass

Panel recommends allowing ranked-choice voting for primaries, local elections

Are your tax dollars going where they’re supposed to? State Capitol committee aims to find out

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News 12 Staff

LIPP1124B_2024-11-24-12-29-57

Welcome back to power and politics. I'm Rich Barab Nassau County executive Bruce Blakeman is back with us now and now it's time to answer your questions. You've sent many questions here for the county executive Bruce. Ready or what? Ready to go. Here we go. All right. The first question comes to us from our Twitter page and it's a question Bruce probably hears every day of his entire career. When are taxes going down, Bruce? That's the question. Well, they have gone down under my administration when I came into office. My predecessor uh had in her, in her uh budget plan, her five year budget plan, 100 $50 million tax increase. I canceled that. So we said we're not gonna raise taxes. Inflation has been going up. I think over the last three years is probably combined, been about 18%. All the prices have gone up for everything that we purchased just like it is for residents. Uh when they go to the grocery store, they go to the gas pump. So basically, I have not raised taxes the last years. I am not gonna raise taxes next year. And I understand that we have to make it more affordable for people to live here in Nassau County. And we're doing that. Uh We've gotten six bond upgrades. They say that our fiscal planning has been perfect and uh we're gonna continue to do that. Uh This year's proposed budget held the line on taxes and yet we have seen other municipalities on Long Island have to raise taxes, whether it be the town of Hempstead, whether it be town of Babylon Town of Riverhead. And there are more where that came from. So it has been an issue. But another question here comes from Justin. You partially just answered it. But he's talking here generally. Why are taxes so high Bruce? Just in general here in New York, in Nassau County? Well, first of all, um your county tax bill uh is about 22% of the total bill and the bulk of your tax bill is for our schools. And people in Nassau County have made a value judgment that they wanted to invest in the schools. So our schools are expensive, but look at the results of our schools, our schools are in the top tier of every group that measures the quality of education. So our residents go out each year and they vote for the budgets of their school districts because they want better schools for their kids. So I completely understand that. All right, let's move to the next question. Now it relates to affordability here on Long Island. And the question is why hasn't he fixed the broken assessment system that came to us from Twitter Bruce? You mentioned the assessment system under your predecessor earlier. Um It still is a situation where people generally have to grieve to get taxes, their property values where they should be. How can you fix that? It is fixed? Uh We have much less errors than my predecessor and that's where it gets expensive for the taxpayers. When you make an error, you gotta pay it back and you gotta pay it back with interest. So what we're finding out is we are settling tax grievances earlier and sooner. So we don't have to pay interest. We have less judgments. We're paying down the tax cert judgments out of our funds to make sure that we're not burdening future homeowners and future generations with a big tax burden in the future. So we are doing this in a very responsible way and quite frankly, I get no complaints about our tax assessment system. Uh This is a rare question about it because virtually people are happy that we solve the problem by correcting all the errors. All right, let's move on here. The CS E A they rallied recently. The union is suing. Of course, Nassau County has been a hot topic issue. Uh What can you tell us about this? Obviously, these are very important people in terms of making sure the county is able to run and operate properly. Well, first of all, I love our workers and they do a great job and I want quality health care for our workers. But every business, every individual out there understands that they have to contribute for their health care. We're asking for a small contribution from our union members to the health care as have the CS E A workers in the state, the CS EO CCS E A workers in the state contribute 16% of premium individually and 31% for a family. We're asking for 12% individually and 21% for a family. Much less than CS ea A workers in the state. And I would even negotiate all of that. But the union leaders got to get serious and they gotta be honest with their members. There has to be a contribution, get off the picket line, come to the bargaining table. I've been waiting for seven months for them to come to the bargaining table and they come with nothing. And they're, they're saying in their contract that they don't have to contribute that it's in the contract is that not a no, that's not accurate. They got very, very lucrative raises based on savings that they were supposed to achieve from changing their health care network. And the state, again, the states involved, the state canceled their health care program and we had to put them in another program and we had a reopen in our contract that said that if this happened, we would have to go back to the negotiating table. That's what I wanna do. They don't wanna pay anything that's not acceptable. I have to protect the taxpayers of this county and make sure that we have a fiscally responsible government. And that means that just like everybody else, you're gonna have to contribute something to your health care. Ok. Let's move on to the next question here. And it's any chance of privatizing things like sanitation, the savings and pay pensions, medical vehicles maintenance, et cetera. Obviously, not all of these apply to the County Bruce, but have you looked at privatization? There are of course pitfalls that can come with that as well. Yeah, I'm a big fan of public private partnerships and we try to enter into them whether it be with for profit organizations or not for profit organizations. So we have a lot of examples where we will partner with the a profit making company or a non for profit on a project or, or some type of uh program and uh I'm in favor of it. So if people have ideas with respect to that, that they wanna give it to me, I, I would be very, very happy to hear. 5165713131 call my office. Give us your ideas because we're always looking for opportunities to save the taxpayers money. Ok. And um lastly on this, what's the outlook here, we only have about 30 seconds with the outlook moving forward, considering the different variables at play. Is it difficult to budget ahead? Different administration expenses, inflation, et cetera? No, because we have a great team of people who understand that I wanna make this county affordable, that we have to be fiscally responsible. And as I said before, Wall Street has rewarded us with six upgrades in three years. That's unprecedented. And it shows that we're doing the right thing to protect the taxpayers here in Nassau County. All right. Our conversation with the Nassau County executive Bruce Lakeman continues here on power and politics. He said to answer more of your questions just ahead. Stay with us.

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LIPP1124C_2024-11-24-12-30-24

We're back with Nassau County executive, Bruce Blakeman here on power and politics. The county executive is answering your questions. We have one more for you here, Bruce. This is uh from our Twitter page. It says, how do you feel about prop one passing in New York State with significant support on Long Island according to the person who is posting that question, what do you say? Well, I was vehemently against it. I think it's a mistake and I think the way it was packaged was very uh disingenuous. Uh They said it was an Equal rights amendment. It's not an equal rights amendment. It's not a proposition for equal rights. It's a proposition for special rights. It takes away parental control from parents, gives it to the state. Uh It creates new uh groups that have special rights that uh uh traditionally they didn't get. Uh it's, it's a prescription for disaster and mischief. Uh It's anti religious. I think that with uh Bishop Barris of uh the Roman Catholic church here at the Rockville Center Diocese who is the leader of the Catholic church here saying that it's, it's not good for Catholics. Um I met with rabbis who have, uh, religious institutions and educational institutions. They were against it. What I think happened was that it was packaged in a way that people felt they were voting for equal rights. It's just the opposite. Uh, it, it would restrict your rights. So, uh, I, I think it was a disaster and I think when people find out what it's about, there will be a very, very strong reaction against it. Ok? We've got about a minute left here. Anything you want residents to know about in the upcoming year, just that we're gonna move forward, rebuilding our infrastructure, making us a safer county, not resting on our laurels, keeping taxes down and making sure that our quality of life here in Nassau County is the best in the United States. And I think we're achieving that and uh I don't wanna rest on my laurels. I'm, I'm the type of person who demands a lot from the people around me and I demand a lot from myself. So I'm gonna work hard to make sure that I make this county better each and every day. What's the feedback from folks in the county when you see them on the street, day in day out, what do they want done? They want safe communities, they want affordable taxes, they want sanctuary, they want, they don't want a sanctuary county, they want the migrants out. So, uh these are the things I hear every day. They want boys to play with boys and girls to play with girls. They wanna get back to common sense. And I think that, uh passing the mask ban is, is something that was very, very important to do because we've exempted people who wear it because of religious purposes for health reasons. So there's no other reason to wear a mask unless you're a criminal. And we are gonna arrest people who wear masks because we know they're up to. No good. All right, Bruce Blakeman is the Nassau County executive Bruce. Thanks so much. We appreciate you coming in. Thanks so much. Appreciate it. And that's all for power and politics this week here on News. 12 Long Island. I'm rich for a, thanks for watching. We'll see you next week.

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Bruce Blakeman answers viewer questions during this week's Power & Politics. 

Power & Politics: 1:1 with Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman

Bruce Blakeman answers viewer questions during this week's Power & Politics.

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