Levy vetoes $4.6M for college renovation

Fifteen days after making himself a lame duck, County Executive Steve Levy began battling again with the county legislature on Friday as he vetoed $4.65 million in borrowing for building projects at Suffolk County Community College.

Presiding Officer William Lindsay (D-Holbrook) predicted a legislative override, noting that the vetoes also will mean the loss of $4.65 million in state matching aid. The projects are slated to cost a total of $9.3 million.

In his veto messages, Levy criticized lawmakers for raising concerns about the county's increasing debt, but failing to act to curb spending. He said county taxpayers cannot afford to provide identical facilities at each of the college's three campuses.

"I have heard the Legislature complain about debt . . . but it seems as if they haven't listened to themselves," Levy said in a prepared statement. "They want to have it both ways -- crying about debt but still approving every borrowing resolution, over my objections, without any prioritization."

The vetoes block borrowing $3.5 million for installation of cooling systems at the college, $655,000 for renovation of the Peconic Building and $500,000 for planning the new health and sports complex, both at the college's eastern campus.

Lindsay accused Levy of "playing political gotcha" because lawmakers had questioned a proposal to issue bonds to pay several lawsuit settlements instead of including money in the budget to cover them.

Levy withdrew the college funding resolutions after the legislature balked at borrowing to pay the court settlements, saying the college money was needed to pay for the court cases. The legislature later relented and approved borrowing to settle the lawsuits.

Lindsay said he expects easy passage of an override because the resolutions originally were approved on a 16-1 vote; 12 votes are needed for an override.