At cliff's edge, LI must make a choice

Long Island at the crossroads? Nope, according to a rash of recent news and other reports.

Now, it's more like Long Island's at the edge of a cliff.

In Nassau County, a state oversight board -- along with the county comptroller -- is projecting nearly a $300-million hole in next year's budget.

In Suffolk, meanwhile, the independent office of budget review predicts that the 2012 plan proposed by outgoing County Executive Steve Levy could leave the county cash-poor by April.

But in Suffolk, the legislature, which is notoriously independent, is determined to fix whatever needs fixing in the proposal before adopting it.

In Nassau -- based on last week's first legislative hearing on County Executive Edward Mangano's flawed 2012 proposal -- lawmakers appear to be headed in the opposite direction: They seem intent on adopting a 2012 budget but stalling decisions on specific service and other cuts until after November's legislative elections.

Even then, their actions likely won't matter, because Nassau's finances are in such bad shape that the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, a state control board, worried aloud last week that Nassau might not be able to borrow funds it needs to keep things moving.

But county finances aren't the only issues vexing Long Island.

The region's middle class remains under attack, with more and more families -- according to food, housing and other social services providers -- finding it difficult to make ends meet during the economic downturn.

Local economists say that the region's recovery is stalling. But it will take a long time before Long Island will see significant economic improvement.

That's a big deal in a region that, after World War II, came to personify a booming suburban middle class and the best it had to offer.

It's doubtful the region will get significant relief from New York State, which is facing its own economic woes. Or from Washington, which isn't working well either.

And the state of the local middle class can only be compounded by the number of residents, middle-aged and young, who, according to U.S. census and other reports, are opting to move rather than make a life here.

What's Long Island to do?

In Suffolk, two state lawmakers -- Assemb. Fred Thiele (I-Sag Harbor) and Sen. Kenneth P. LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) -- have introduced a bill to form a bi-county commission to study creating the State of Long Island.

Last week, they added another item: Fashioning a third Long Island county, Peconic, using Suffolk's five eastern towns.

Neither are new ideas. But there's a third one floating about that has merit: Why not examine the feasibility of combining Nassau and Suffolk?

It likely has more potential than corralling Nassau, Suffolk and a yet-to-be-created Peconic counties into a yet-to-be-created Long Island State.

If there's going to be a bi-county commission, why not have it study all three possibilities?

Even the process of culling through all three would have value, if only because it would force Long Island to look at itself -- and ways to address nagging issues -- in a new way.

The region may have moved toward a cliff, but there has got to be a better option than jump.