Bellone to revise layoff list by Friday

Top aides to County Executive Steve Bellone told Suffolk County lawmakers Tuesday that a revised list of layoffs will be ready by Friday, but warned against delaying the emergency measure because every additional month would mean $3 million in costs or 50 extra layoffs.

The warning came as Deputy County Executives Fred Pollert and Jon Schneider updated lawmakers on the latest developments in addressing Suffolk's $530 million shortfall. County lawmakers are scheduled to meet next Tuesday to vote on new layoff lists. The briefing also came a day after Comptroller Joseph Sawicki disclosed the county's 2011 deficit doubled to $60.5 million and the day before Bellone is to deliver his first State of the County address.

Bellone aides warned against delay after Legis. John Kennedy, GOP minority leader, raised the idea of taking up to another month to study the layoff list to make sure that "fully aided positions" -- those completely reimbursed by state or federal funds -- or those crucial to public safety are not included. Kennedy said the original list devised by former County Executive Steve Levy last year "lacked any logic or sanity and was meant to incite and inflame." Levy maintains his proposal for more than 700 layoffs would have balanced the budget.

Schneider said Bellone has worked with lawmakers for the past week to make fixes, but the administration expects to be able to save only "the most highly aided spots" -- those with 80 to 100 percent reimbursement. He added that any delay on the revised list would mean that Levy's layoff list, which lawmakers approved last year in the 2012 budget, would go out. "We've been drilling down," said Schneider, "but we don't want to drill the hole any deeper . . . any time you lose 400 employees you can't avoid real pain."

The layoffs are looming because in the 2012 spending package lawmakers funded 462 positions only for the first six months of the year. Another 200 jobs at the county's Yaphank nursing home are also slated for layoffs, but Bellone is still weighing the fate of the complex. Bellone aides could not say how large the final layoff list would be, but hope the savings would remain close to the $11.7 million budget estimate for this year and $24 million next year.

During the 2 1/2-hour meeting, Robert Lipp, deputy director of the office of budget review, also disclosed that the 6.3 percent first-quarter sales tax gain was largely fueled by state adjustments correcting payments to the county from earlier periods. Lipp said the growth in sales tax revenue without the adjustments was only 3.5 percent, slightly under the 3.95 budgeted for the year and the 4.6 percent needed because 2011 sales tax came in under budget.

Both legislative and executive budget officials also warned that the county should preserve the $251 million in various reserve funds to help the county survive what Pollert said was the county's "excruciatingly tight" cash crunch.