The many identities of the editorial board

An editorial board has many identities. At Newsday, we raise alarms, plead for justice, criticize hypocrisy, and endorse candidates for elected office. One of our most important day-in, day-out functions is what you might call being an advocate-watchdog. And in that function, we serve many constituencies – taxpayers, commuters, home owners, business owners, voters, and the environment.

Sometimes being an advocate-watchdog means riding herd on government agencies charged with protecting children, as in the Thomas Valva case. Sometimes it means going to bat for voting reforms, to ensure all residents have ample opportunities to cast ballots. Sometimes, it means making a case for preserving open space.

This week, it meant continuing our push to get Nassau and Suffolk counties to eliminate an unfair – not to mention illegal – administrative fee on red-light camera tickets. The board called the fee “a disingenuous way to raise revenue even as county executives crowed, ‘No tax increases!’” The good news: Suffolk is about to jettison the fee. The bad news: Nassau isn’t.

It also meant chastising the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for not communicating well with Long Island Rail Road riders about changes coming with the opening of East Side Access. “The MTA should have been more communicative and upfront with riders,” the board wrote.

The board also has sought a fix for Suffolk homeowners who installed expensive wastewater treatment systems but then were taxed by the federal government on grants whose funds went directly to installers, money that made the projects affordable. “This never made much sense,” the board wrote, while extolling an IRS solution that seemed to be in sight and later came to fruition. 

We often advocate for students, the quality of education they receive, and taxpayers who fund those schools. One recent target was ultra-Orthodox schools in New York City and Rockland County, some of which are not teaching the basics, producing “more than 50,000 American-born young adults who cannot speak or write English properly, lack basic math skills, and know little of civics or science or history,” the board wrote, adding that the schools receive millions of taxpayer dollars for transportation, social services, and secular education programs. “Religious leaders can’t expect public monies to fund schools that refuse to teach all the skills students need to flourish.”

Sometimes the role means watching out for the watchdogs, too, as we did when we implored Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign a bill restoring oversight of state contracts to the state comptroller. Those contracts spend taxpayer dollars, after all. “Restoring full oversight is a no-brainer,” the board said. “Over the last decade, billions of dollars in contracts have skirted State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s scrutiny, leaving taxpayers in the dark …”

When you’re a watchdog, light is always better than dark.

- Michael Dobie