Dan Levler, Suffolk AME head, hits Suffolk lawmakers over budget vote

Dan Levler, president of Suffolk’s largest municipal union, is criticizing the county legislature for failing to change County Executive Steve Bellone’s $3.11 billion budget to provide more money for public health and safety.

“I’m very disappointed,” said Levler, “The legislature has kind of rendered itself irrelevant in the budget process.” He said he was “especially disappointed that a member of the budget working group did not support their own work product.”

The union was upset that lawmakers deadlocked 9-9 on an amendment to make about three dozen changes to the budget, including funding for drug counselors to fight opioid addiction,  child protective service workers, auditors and emergency dispatchers. The spending would have added $1.5 million to the budget.

The deadlock also left intact Bellone’s plan to borrow $32 million from the county rainy day fund this year and pay it back in 2020.

Although Levler did not mention any lawmakers by name, two Republican members of the budget working group, Rudolph Sunderman and Steve Flotteron, would not back the final package of changes put forward by the bipartisan committee.