Levy, lawmakers spar over capital spending

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy withdrew resolutions for nearly $5 million in capital projects Tuesday after the county legislature balked at borrowing for a $3-million court settlement.

Levy also threatened to issue an emergency resolution cutting the county's operating budget to pay for the settlement, but lawmakers, who had been complaining about the growth of county borrowing, later retreated and authorized the bonds.

The legislature, meanwhile, overrode Levy's veto of a measure authorizing a second shelter provider for homeless sex offenders. They also approved a home rule resolution for state legislation to give probation officers the right to binding arbitration. Lawmakers approved $150,000 for a skateboard park in Sayville and raised park fees $800,000, including a $3 increase in golf fees. The legislature, however, tabled a measure requiring motorists to clear their cars of snow to avoid accidents.

Levy withdrew resolutions for a half-dozen projects including a new sports and health complex on Suffolk County Community College's eastern campus and $2.3 million in sheriff's projects. Earlier, the legislature had failed to back bonding of $3 million for the county's share of a $6-million 2009 settlement of a traffic accident case on County Road 48.

Presiding Officer William Lindsay (D-Holbrook) agreed with Levy the county had "no choice" but to borrow because neither the executive or legislature put aside money for the settlement in the 2011 budget. But Lindsay added Levy's decision to withdraw funding for the capital projects "most charitably . . . was an act to get some people's attention." Lindsay later in the day refiled the resolutions for the projects that Levy had withdrawn as his own.

Levy said he was upset by lawmakers' "sudden concern" about capital spending when the legislature over the past seven years has increased his proposed capital budgets, which had reduced spending by a cumulative $130 million. "There's tremendous hypocrisy here," he said.Meanwhile, county lawyers went to the Appellate Division to seek a clarification on whether a court order stopping closure of the county nursing home would also block the legislature's vote to sell the 264-bed Yaphank complex. The appellate division made no ruling, but ordered both sides to file court papers by March 15.