Nassau police pay, midterm elections, wrongful death law, and more

Blakeman vote helped cops get big pacts

Nassau County taxpayers watch in wonderment at the six-figure dollar expenditures for police termination pay while some elected officials must hope taxpayer memories are short ["Police at top of Nassau, Suffolk payrolls," News, July 25]. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman refuses to accept responsibility for this debt as he brazenly casts blame on previous administrations. Blakeman bemoaned the escalating deficit of the Nassau University Medical Center, which he helped create when he was presiding officer of the Nassau County Legislature and one of its architects.

When confronted with more than $29 million in termination pay for the police department, Blakeman said in a statement that the county "is bound by collective bargaining agreements that were consummated prior to our tenure.” While Blakeman was presiding officer 20 years ago, he voted for the very contracts that have placed county taxpayers in further debt.

Politicians are fond of making a problem the next official's problem. As fate would have it, Blakeman is "the next official." Blakeman's adopting the mantra of deny and blame the other guy does not resonate well with taxpayers who have long memories.

Paulette Frimet, Eastport

Newsday's article, which calls police retirement packages excessive, should lead with the fact that these people have done nothing wrong. These deals are the result of negotiated contracts. This reminds me of articles about the ultra-wealthy who, thanks to their accountants, pay what some consider less than their share. If there’s a problem, change it in future contracts.

Rich Corso, Oceanside

Centrist candidates will be fall’s winners

I agree that there are a substantial number of citizens still believing that former President Donald Trump’s reelection was stolen [“The election threat that lingers,” Editorial, July 24].

However, this line from your editorial needs further comment: “As of last month, more than 100 candidates in this sect of false belief had won Republican nominations for state and federal office.”

Part of the Democrats’ playbook this year is to campaign for and fund these “Trumpers” in primaries, hoping they win the Republican nomination and will be defeated in the general election. This leads to your erroneous conclusion about voting in this season’s Republican primaries. Some may call that a dirty trick. Politics is not always fair.

Sadly, our choices this fall may likely be between holding our noses while voting for a candidate either too far to the left or too far to the right of our beliefs. Or perhaps it’s more of a vote against a candidate we dislike more, as was the case for many in the past two presidential elections.

Give me a good centrist candidate on either the Democrat or Republican ticket. That person will have my vote, and I’m betting Long Islanders, New Yorkers and many other Americans will support that candidate as well.

— Robert Bialer, Glen Cove

This insurrection problem and its aftermath could have been avoided if the Electoral College had been eliminated.

Every public election at every level except for the White House has been one person, one vote as we are entitled to, not appointed representatives to vote for us.

It should be popular votes mailed to a central collection site to truly gather the votes. The Republicans would not like this, of course, since Vice President Al Gore had more popular votes than Texas Gov. George W. Bush, and Hillary Clinton had more votes than Donald Trump.

— Mark Schaier, Oyster Bay

Expanding wrongful death statute isn’t OK

The article about expanding New York’s wrongful death statute importantly mentions the strong opposition of local governments because of the impact to state taxpayers “Wrongful death statute,” News, July 24].

Not mentioned, however, is the enormous adverse impact this legislation would have on our already battered health care system, struggling to recover from the pandemic.

As physicians, we understand patient suffering and feel for victims of wrongful death. Nevertheless, Gov. Kathy Hochul must veto this bill. If she does not, patient access and continuity of care could be threatened, particularly in underserved communities where physicians and safety net hospitals are already financially stressed.

A recent actuarial study concluded that this bill would have liability insurance costs rise by nearly 40% for New York State’s doctors and hospitals.

New York already has by far the highest liability costs and insurance premiums in the country.

To preserve access to our health care safety net, the governor must bring together various parties to discuss the best way for such lawsuit expansion to be achieved responsibly.

— Dr. Parag Mehta, New Hyde Park

The writer is president of the Medical Society of the State of New York.

U.S. is Bizarro World in today’s politics

Those readers who expressed opinions concerning fairness, justice, and upholding the Constitution, be they Republicans or Democrats, must realize we live in, using a comic book term, Bizarro World [“Trump could have given his side,” Letters, July 26].

Everything is backward.

If you’re looking for justice, fairness, kindness or political correctness, forget about them in today’s world.

Look at recent Supreme Court decisions to see how we deal with political issues and, most of all, justice.

We need to get back to real-world thinking and how we can make things better and not focus on the “me world” we seem to be living in.

The comments about the Jan. 6 House select committee hold merit, but until something is done about the insurrection, many people will think it is a useless soap opera.

Let’s get back to the real America.

— Joel Moskowitz, Plainview