By Hank Russell
Former Suffolk County Executive and New York State Assemblyman Steve Levy led a roundtable discussion at LIMBA (Long Island Metro Business Action) at the Candlelight Diner in Commack on May 29. The topics included the recently passed state budget, renewable energy and climate change.
Levy first focused on the budget’s negatives, starting with spending. The 2027 budget totaled $268 billion, he said. That is a 60% increase in spending over the last five years. “They don’t have the ability to control spending,” he said of the state Legislature. “It’s out of control.”
He pointed out Albany’s hypocrisy when it came to spending caps. “The state legislature told the schools, the towns and the counties, ‘You have to cap spending,’ but they did not apply that [rule] to themselves,” he said.
What blew a hole in the budget, Levy said, was the changes to the Tier 6 pensions, which lowered the retirement age by five years from 63 to 58, reduced the amount of money the state worker is required to contribute to the pension system and raised the overtime cap to 25% from 15%. This undid the previous reforms from the Andrew Cuomo administration.
The new changes were “a sweetheart deal to the unions” from Governor Kathy Hochul, Levy said. These Tier 6 employees joined in 2015, when this tier was established. “Now, there are more employees than ever before, so they have the clout.” He also said the workers “pressured” the governor and the state lawmakers into agreeing to these concessions. According to Levy, this will cost taxpayers $500 million.
“This [payment] will come from school and local taxes,” Levy said. “The people are going to get plastered.”
He also disagreed with Hochul’s ban on local governments entering into agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This means that illegal immigrants currently living in the state will continue to receive free healthcare and government benefits which are subsidized by the state’s taxpayers. “If you don’t think that this will affect your property taxes, you are mistaken,” he said.
However, there were some aspects of the budget that he agreed with. One was the SEQRA (State Environmental Quality Review Act) reforms, which limits the expediting process to two years. “We need [SEQRA], but it’s been so abused,” Levy said, adding it’s been used as a “veto power” for the not-in-my-backyard groups. At the same time, “developers can’t just build homes willy-nilly.”
Another positive in the budget, he said, was allowing tax credits on donations made to private school scholarships. As students apply for these scholarships, “they’re not tapping public money,” Levy said, adding that many states — especially red states — offer these tax credits.
He also pointed out other reasons for runaway spending in New York. One is Medicaid, which is paying family members $12 billion to take care of their loved ones who are gravely ill or incapacitated. “This is one of the greatest scams,” Levy said of the program. “A 27-year-old who lives in his mother’s basement playing video games can collect a $45,000 check just for taking care of his mother.”
In California, it’s worse. “They’re trying to unionize [family caretakers],” he said. “All that money goes into the coffers and straight into the campaign for the candidate [who is endorsed by the unions].”
He also pointed out that certain laws on the books such as the Wicks Law, the Triboro Amendment and the Scaffold Law have increased the financial burden for taxpayers and, in the case of the Scaffold Law, businesses really take the hit, Levy said.
“The company assumes 100% liability,” Levy said. “If a worker gets drunk after drinking a six-pack after lunch, and he falls off the scaffold, the company is responsible. That raises our insurance rates.”
One of the attendees turned the topic to renewable energy. Dr. Peter J. Gollon, an advocate and supporter of renewable energy, touted the benefits of solar energy. “No doubt it’s cheaper energy, when you factor in the subsidies,” Levy said. “The trouble is, it’s not going to be enough.”
Lisa Chalker, an investment advisor representative, questioned the impact that the solar panels have on the environment, once they need to be replaced. She also pointed out that 90% of the panels are made in China and 10% are made in Japan.
Levy said, when it comes to energy, it’s not just renewables or fossil fuels. “All of the above is the answer,” he said.
Dr. John Tanacredi, professor of earth and environmental sciences at Molloy University, brought up the topic of climate change. He noted that 24 computer models that predicted rising sea levels and temperatures exaggerated the outcomes. “Things have not dramatically changed in the last 50 years,” Tanacredi said. “We’ve had the same number of hurricanes.”
More people are living along the coastline, Tanacredi said, which means “more people are living in harm’s way.”
Although he believes that climate change exists, Levy said “where the scam comes in” is when people such as Al Gore “scare people to death” by saying the world will end soon. “They will say, ‘I can save you, just give me a lot of money and control.’”
LIMBA announced that the next meeting will feature Long Island Rail Road President Rob Free. Levy, a longtime critic of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), has constantly called for a financial control board for the MTA.
“The MTA is an insatiable beast,” Levy said. “It keeps sucking in money. The MTA doesn’t have a revenue problem; it has a spending problem.’