LIers offer their wish list for Obama

President Barack Obama will be attempting to woo suburban communities with Tuesday night's State of the Union pitch championing the middle class.

For Long Island, the focus comes just in time.

Just last week, an annual report, the Long Island Index, showed that 61 percent of Island residents were having trouble making mortgage and rent payments.

And that, as of December, Nassau and Suffolk had 10,000 fewer jobs than a year before -- shocking news in a region where 90 percent of employers have 20 or fewer employees.

Obama's expected tack, especially in a volatile election year, is a no-brainer: Suburbs, where more than 50 percent of the nation's residents live, increasingly decide national elections.

Sadly, Long Island likely will see little of Obama or his Republican challenger in person -- or in political commercials -- during the upcoming campaign. That's because Long Island, like the rest of New York State, is presumed to be in the bag for the Democratic candidate -- who likely will get all of the state's electoral votes.

"The road to the White House is the road through the crabgrass because suburban voters are crucial," said Lawrence Levy, executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University.

"But Levittown, Pennsylvania, will see more candidates fighting for their votes and parties spending money on political advertising than Levittown, New York," he said.

While political strategy will play an important role in Obama's address, it's not the only role. Because suburban-smart policies -- if Washington could get them enacted, that is -- that help Levittown, Pa., would help Long Island's Levittown and other local communities, too.

With suburbs across the United States facing challenging times, what does Long Island, the nation's oldest post-War suburb, need?

Former Suffolk Legis. Paul Tonna and other political, business and civic leaders interviewed Monday said the region could benefit from less government.

"Government always seems to want to add something, but it doesn't want to take anything away," said Tonna, a Republican and vice president of the Long Island Regional Planning Council. "There are a lot of small businesses on Long Island that would do better if government set some standards and then pulled back and let businesses do their thing."

Some housing relief would be helpful for the region, too, especially if there were a way to push banks to refinance mortgages for residents whose home values soured with the economy, the local experts said.

Kevin Law, president of the Long Island Association, the region's largest business group, said Nassau and Suffolk could benefit from some initiatives Obama may announce. Among them: An extension of the payroll tax cut, which is set to expire in March. "That would help Long Island businesses," he said.

Others agreed that a higher tax on high incomes would help, too. Law pointed out, however, that Obama's definition of high income -- singles earning $200,000 and up or couples earning more than $250,000 -- needs to expand.

"That's a lot of money but it's not a millionaire's income and it doesn't create a millionaire's lifestyle on Long Island," he said. "That's a high middle income here." Obama would be better off adopting Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's definition of incomes greater than $2 million, Law said.

Help the middle class? It's grand that Obama wants to make a try. But what's really needed, beyond rhetoric, is success -- a rare thing in Washington these days.