Levy vetoes added community college aid

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy Monday vetoed $386,000 the county legislature had added to the Suffolk County Community College budget, saying the school should use its record $15.6 million surplus to keep tuition below $4,000 a year and keep down the number of impending layoffs.

"The college . . . has developed a healthy surplus over the last several years in large part due to the increased enrollment," Levy said in his two-page veto message. "Utilizing a small percentage of its surplus will enable us to attain the stated desire of keeping tuition at under $4,000 in a manner least painful to all Suffolk County taxpayers."

He noted that Nassau Community College trustees used their surplus to keep tuition at $3,990 -- after a $258 rise.

That was the same tuition most Suffolk lawmakers supported by voting 16-2 for the $386,000 increase in aid.

Under their plan, Suffolk tuition would increase by $214 to reach the $3,990 level.

Levy said the county cannot afford to increase its current $38.7 million contribution to the college because the county has a $179 million budget hole, including $20 million in state health aid cuts.

Without union concessions, Levy expects "hundreds of layoffs" countywide.

He said the $386,000 increase in the county's college contribution this year would also add $386,000 to next year's budget creating a $772,000 budget hole.

"Every dollar we save will lead to preservation of someone's job," he said. "Why would we cavalierly spend that money from the general fund when it is sitting in the college surplus?"

Levy issued the veto on the eve of the county legislature meeting in Riverhead, where college officials are hoping lawmakers will override it. It would take 12 votes in the legislature to do so.

Mary Lou Araneo, a college spokeswoman, said the problem with using a one-shot revenue from the college's surplus raises the specter of "a more dramatic increase in the following year."

The college, in presenting its $195.2 million budget in April, included a $250 tuition hike that would have raised the cost of the college to $4,026.

The college and Presiding Officer William Lindsay (D-Holbrook) brokered a deal where lawmakers would add $386,000 and the college cut an equal amount in costs to keep tuition below $4,000.

"I think we did the right thing with the college," Lindsay said. Keeping tuition down, he said, is important because Suffolk pays for local students who now attend Nassau Community College and other schools statewide, at a cost of $12 million a year.

He also questioned Levy's layoff plans, saying savings are diminished because axed workers can cash out deferred salary, unused vacation and sick time. The county also has to pay for 99 weeks of unemployment insurance, he noted.

"Our basic problem is sales tax, and when you lay people off it doesn't improve that number," he said.