Battling over Suffolk's future

As his parting gift to his favorite sparring partner, the county legislature, Suffolk Executive Steve Levy has helped to create a spirit of near-total bipartisanship among the lawmakers. On both sides of the aisle, legislators agree that his proposed 2012 budget is the worst one they can remember.

So get ready for a titanic struggle over the next few weeks. Levy argues that his $2.7-billion budget is painful but balanced, and legislators insist it is painfully unbalanced -- by more than $120 million. Levy fears the legislature will take a budget that bears the words "A Legacy of Taxpayer Relief" on its cover and pass one that isn't really in balance -- and next year, everyone will be blaming him. Some legislators fear that, if they don't fix his budget, it will force Levy's successor next year to raise taxes and take draconian steps that will make him or her a one-term county executive.

What's needed instead is a 2012 budget that's credibly balanced, based on reliable revenues, and that the new county executive and new legislature can use to keep Suffolk on the fiscal straight and narrow. These are some of the questions that confront the legislature:

Nursing home. Levy wants the county out of the nursing home business. The legislature wants Suffolk to keep running John J. Foley Skilled Nursing Facility in Yaphank. One sale has already fallen through. Levy budgeted $2.6 million in this year's budget from the sale of its license. For 2012, he budgeted $27 million from the sale of the property and $2.1 million from the sale of equipment. But there's a legitimate question whether the county can sell the property for that much -- if it's sold at all -- in this depressed market, without the license.

Layoffs. Levy has proposed 709 layoffs, including the staff at Foley. But legislators working on the budget said Levy had not really consulted with his department heads before deciding which workers to lay off. They also say his choice of pink slips in some cases involves score-settling. Levy says the unions can avert the layoffs by coming up with $31 million in concessions, and we urge them to step up and save as many of those jobs as possible. In any case, the identity of those to be laid off must be based only on a rational analysis of needed services versus costs.

Sales tax revenue. Levy's budget estimates a 3.95 percent growth in sales tax revenue in 2012. He defends it as sound, and cites a recent sales tax check from the state to the county that shows growth in that range. But the daily drumbeat of bleak economic news and the possibility of double-dip recession justifies the legislature's skepticism.

One-shots. The legislators are talking about taking as much as $40 million from the $60 million in the county's tax stabilization reserve fund and about more borrowing against the stream of revenue coming in from the 1998 settlement by tobacco companies. They should think long and hard before relying on one-shot revenue fixes like those.

Despite the title on the document, the final Levy budget is not about his legacy. It's about the county's future. In this heated atmosphere, it won't be easy to pass a budget that keeps Suffolk strong and solvent, but that's exactly what we need.