Cuomo mustn't neglect Long Island

Desmond Ryan is the executive director of the developers group the Association for a Better Long Island.

Given his political upbringing, Gov. Andrew Cuomo approaches his new job as a history student, mindful that New York stands at a crucial juncture.

It either confronts its projected $9.3-billion deficit through a sweeping reorganization of its books, or it slips into America's backwater, a sad and tired state that failed to find the energy, leadership or political will to reassert its historic dominance. Whichever occurs, it will happen on his watch.

Cuomo has said he will use his political capital to confront special interests, seek a property tax cap, reduce and streamline state government, incentivize school-district consolidations and more. He will need a healthy Long Island to get those jobs done. According to Thomas Conoscenti of Nesconset, a professor of economics at New York University, Long Island contributes more than 21 percent to the state's economy. But far too many Albany leaders view our region as a perpetual motion machine, an economic generator that can be left unattended for decades. It isn't, and it can't be.

So as Cuomo moves past today's State of the State address, he should put Long Island in context: It's not a suburb. It's a fully independent economic entity, and a New York City-centric strategy will do Long Island, and therefore the state, irreparable harm.

Nassau County has become New York's sickly old man, teetering on the verge of a takeover by the Nassau Interim Finance Authority. The Cuomo administration should let events take their course; if Albany were to assume a more direct role, it would also be responsible for other counties around the state, such as Erie County, that may face insolvency during 2011.

Where the state has authority, it should act resolutely. For example, a bizarre certiorari structure exists for the Long Island Power Authority, whereby Long Island energy ratepayers are paying municipalities and school districts tens of millions of dollars because of overassessments for obsolete power plants in their towns. So distorted is this agreement that about 14 percent of our monthly energy bills is going to these "payments in lieu of taxes" (PILOTs). That's the equivalent of spending $50,000 a year in taxes on a house valued at $225,000, and it's contributing directly to Long Island's extraordinary electricity costs. The Cuomo administration needs to allow LIPA to stop this hemorrhage and then go further by removing LIPA's PILOTs altogether, so that our energy rates drop and the region becomes far more competitive in creating new jobs and securing new investment.

In sections of our Island, there remains a legacy of Cold War industrial pollution that requires costly cleanup. The Cuomo administration should enlist companies to expedite remediation by designating specific "brown fields" as economic incentive zones, sparking investment and job creation while accelerating cleanup.

The Paterson administration sought to balance its books by shutting down state infrastructure repair and construction projects. It was one of the most regressive policies ever endured by the heavy construction industry and brought several firms to the edge of bankruptcy. A rational and ironclad five-year infrastructure plan would restore sanity to this basic essential service. And given that Long Island thrives or dies based on its transportation network, Cuomo should use his considerable influence to create a formal alliance between the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Long Island MacArthur Airport, to enable the airport to become part of the solution to aviation gridlock at LaGuardia and Kennedy.

Cuomo knows that his legacy will have to be built within the shot and shell of a political firestorm. Partisan divisions run deep in Albany. He will be making decisions and issuing executive orders that create fierce opposition from entrenched power brokers. But Long Island and New York will need shock therapy if their economies are to become competitive again. He will need to use rhetoric, a sense of history and a ruthless use of executive power to reinvent state government - but he needs to see Long Island from the windows of his Albany office.