Letters to the Rockville Centre Herald May 17, 2012

The interests of residents come first

To the Editor:

An issue as important and contentious as the village budget entitles all of our residents to their own opinions, but not their own facts! The letter “He sees problems — and has suggestions” (May 10-16) is full of so many inaccuracies that it would be comical if it were not so dangerous to the taxpayers of our village.

Contrary to the letter’s contention, the village’s unreserved fund balance (its “rainy day fund”) is already too small for the credit rating agencies, which have threatened to cut Rockville Centre’s credit rating if we don’t significantly increase the balance. If we were to take the letter’s suggestion to cut the already-too-small fund in half, the village’s credit rating would certainly be cut, our interest rates on capital project bonds would greatly increase and the overall long-term injury in additional cost to the taxpayers would be far greater than any small, short-term tax benefit gained this year.

The suggestion that since our unions were unwilling to contribute more to their health and pension costs, the village should “right-size” its work force to 2009 levels and save $1 million is completely false. If we were to return to the work force numbers of 2009, the village would have to hire some additional employees, as we have continually reduced the size of our work force through attrition these past three years.

The letter goes on to applaud Trustee Ed Oppenheimer for “his hard work in finding and making suggestions to reduce the village’s costs.” I would like to know what budget hearings the letter’s author attended or watched, as the only suggestion made by Trustee Oppenheimer was to increase the size of the budget by hiring an additional police officer at a cost of $100,000. While Trustee Oppenheimer is entitled to his opinion regarding a need for additional personnel, one would have to stretch the imagination into fantasy to consider that a suggestion to “reduce the village’s costs.”