Bellone robocall urges fight on new tax law

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone made a robocall last week asking voters to go to his website and sign a petition to oppose a new tax law that bars homeowners from taking deductions for their property and state income taxes.

His robocall trumpets Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s efforts to create legislation that would allow New Yorkers to take advantage of the deduction through a charitable trust. The Internal Revenue Service, however, has proposed to make such actions illegal.

“We are fighting back, but we need your help. Comments are due to the IRS by Oct. 11,” said Bellone in his taped message. He asks those called to sign the petition on his website Facebook.com/stevebellone.

The calls were made to 200,000 homes last Monday and during a second round on Wednesday. Bellone’s phone blitz is costing $14,000 and is being paid out of his campaign fund.

Meanwhile, a second anti-Bellone mailing, with a banner, “Report from the Right,” has gone out. It attacks the county executive as a “liberal Democrat,” with a “secret left wing agenda” and “radical friends.”

The mailing has one picture of Bellone, who is up for re-election next year, looking jowly, and a montage on the back pictures him with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. The group’s website also sports a picture of Bellone riding a bicycle to work with a helmet that looks a size too small.

Last month, a direct mail blitz attacked Bellone as a “liberal” with “free spending ways” who has imposed $100 million in new fees since taking office.

The mailing, also headlined “Report from the Right Suffolk County Edition,” does not identify its source and lists only a Hauppauge post office box. Noel DiGerolamo, president of the Suffolk Police Benevolent Association, had warned before Labor Day that an anti-Bellone ad blitz was on the way but he didn't comment further on the mailing or say whether it came from the union.

A Bellone spokesman declined to comment.