Those elected must now forgo the slogans, sweat the details

The "affordability" mantra resonated everywhere throughout the national elections of 2026. Candidates played to voters' concerns about the cost of gasoline, groceries, housing, prescription drugs, health, house and car insurance, and much else.

New York's federal and state legislative elections reinforced the Democratic Party's dominance here. Under the even-year election law, elections next November will be more limited — largely judgeships and district attorneys. There will be some staggered town board seats on Long Island ballots and a three-year term for Suffolk County executive.

Mostly we are headed into a cycle during which Long Island public officials have two to four years to focus on the increasingly difficult job of managing government rather than pandering to the public.

The affordability issue they can really affect is the cost of government. Minimizing taxes without eviscerating needed services is the challenge for both parties. Honest and targeted efficiencies are needed.

Long Island's two biggest towns, Hempstead and Brookhaven, will be in the spotlight as big examples on spending and services. In the former, Democrat Joe Scianablo will take over as supervisor from Republican John Ferretti.

Scianablo and his mostly GOP board should shun the notion of planning to use reserve funds, property sales and nonrecurring revenue streams in future years to close a structural deficit again, and they should minimize taxes. As elsewhere, labor contracts, on top of pension sweeteners enacted by the state, will add to the pressure of costlier infrastructure, materials and fuel.

In Brookhaven, Republican Supervisor Dan Panico, facing reelection next November, and his board will justifiably try to get the state to ease some mandated costs. Albany should be predisposed to listening. The town has a special infrastructure challenge: the closing of the Brookhaven landfill. The 2027 budget relies heavily on $30 million in landfill revenues to balance its funds. Dumping fees will dwindle, forcing an estimated $21 million loss of public income. Officials are correctly looking to agency consolidations.

In response to a state comptroller's report on the state tax cap earlier this year, the New York Association of Towns pointed to infrastructure, environmental and transportation grants, and shared services agreements with neighboring towns or the county, as ways to avoid busting the 2% cap at a time of spiking costs. Shared services have never been in the DNA of Long Island's many municipalities. But they are ever more necessary.

Indeed, the time is ripe as ever to look beyond any one town's borders toward saving taxpayer money by combining services and districts. It will take a level of multilevel political courage that hasn't been demonstrated before the current crunch. These are the kinds of detailed deals and compromises that take serious commitment — and will affect people a lot more than the mantras, slogans and partisanship of a very big campaign year.