Bellone seeks Albany's help on finances

ALBANY -- Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone sought budget help here Tuesday during a visit with the county delegation and other lawmakers in Albany.

The Democrat, who was elected last year to succeed Steve Levy, came with a short list of items that he said will help the county during a difficult budget year.

"We're coming to the state with a very focused agenda," Bellone said. "There's no silver bullet to solving these financial problems; it's going to take cobbling together a number of different things over several years."

A report on the county's finances due to come out in the next 2 1/2 weeks will show a "significant" deficit, said Bellone, who declined to give an estimate.

Bellone asked lawmakers to authorize an additional 50 red light cameras, for legislation to allow the Suffolk Off-Track Betting bankruptcy to move ahead, to allow Suffolk OTB to put in 2,000 video lottery terminals and to create a traffic bureau similar to what Nassau County has.

Two of the items have the support of Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre).

"We're working on increasing the amount of red light cameras," Skelos said. "We're also looking to help the county of Suffolk with a traffic violations bureau similar to the one we had in Nassau County."

Skelos didn't comment on the OTB bankruptcy and VLTs.

Bellone said that where red light cameras are in place, the county has seen a 20 percent drop in traffic accidents. The additional cameras also would bring in an estimated $6 million annually.

"It's all going to be dependent on the impact on safety," Bellone said. "Obviously revenue is a benefit from the cameras, but the driver has to be public safety."

The traffic violations bureau would allow the county to handle traffic violations on its own, rather than the current system where they're handled by the state Department of Motor Vehicles and state court. The bureau would generate $9 million for the county and $5 million for the East End municipalities by increasing the amount of fees going to local governments and reducing backlogs, Bellone and an aide said.

Bellone also met with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), Secretary to the Governor Larry Schwartz, and members of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian caucus.