Suffolk: Bellone signs budget without vetoes

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone has signed the $2.9 billion budget for 2016 without issuing a single veto over legislative budget amendments.

 Vanessa Baird-Streeter, a Bellone spokeswoman, said the county executive signed the budget Friday.

 Bellone accepted the budget even though a disagreement has arisen over whether the county can use all of the $14.4 million in new tobacco settlement money to help balance the budget which had a projected $51 million shortfall in sales tax revenue.

The comptroller’s fiscal consultant Capital Market Advisors said the county may be barred from using from 40 percent to 60 percent of the funding because of restrictions put in place when the county sold the rights to future revenue from the settlement to private investors.

However, Bellone aides have said the county’s bond counsel on the original tobacco securitization deal said the county could use all the proceeds. They also said the money will not be available for use until at least April by which time the county hopes to have the issue resolved.