Brookhaven Town OKs $260M budget, highway dept. layoffs

Brookhaven Town approved a $260-million 2011 budget last night that will hold the line on taxes while laying off six highway department workers.

Supervisor Mark Lesko had originally proposed 68 layoffs, and a host of service and facility cuts, to balance the cash-strapped town's budget. But the town reached agreements with its blue-collar and white-collar unions that saved all but a handful of jobs.

The town's highway union voted down a proposed agreement with the town.

Town officials approved a plan to lay off six highway workers - four mechanics and two heavy equipment operators - late Thursday.

Lesko said town officials will "do right" by the workers who were laid off.

The statement was met with boos and catcalls at yesterday's tense town board meeting, which attracted about 350 people.

Highways Superintendent John Rouse also said he "will do everything I can to bring those people back" when the town's financial picture is brighter.

Lesko proposed his original $260-million spending plan in September and immediately encountered resistance from union officials who opposed the 68 proposed layoffs. He said at the time that the town's out-of-control debt and disappearing revenue necessitated layoffs.

Lesko has also cited an 18 percent increase in the size of the workforce from 2003 to 2010 and a debt service cost that has reached 24 percent of the general fund.

The original $260-million budget proposal did not include a tax increase. It did include the closure of facilities such as the ecology site and pools in Centereach and Holtsville - all of which drew ire from the public at a series of town meetings.

Those facilities will remain open because of the union's concessions, Lesko said.

Without sacrifices, the town "will be flat broke in 2013," Lesko has said.