Letter: Revenue exaggeration an old gov't trick
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone on Sept 18, 2015. Credit: Ed Betz
The plaint coming from Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone that sales taxes failed to live up to expectations rings rather hollow ["Sales-tax deficit woes," News, Oct. 18].
It's a common ploy among politicians to deliberately overestimate future sales tax income so as to make their yearly budgets look more palatable.
They claim they are holding down county tax increases, while in reality they are simply kiting the budget estimates, knowing they can claim at the end of the year it was beyond their control that the sales tax estimates fail to materialize.
Vincent Grabinsky, North Babylon
