Re-elect Legislator Toback to fifth term
Democrat Jeff Toback, legislator for the 7th District since 2000, deserves credit for supporting measures that Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi instituted to lift the county out of near bankruptcy to fiscal stability.
While we sometimes question Toback's priorities and actions -- such as his attempt to merge the Five Towns Community Center and his dragging his feet on getting new lights at Bay Park in East Rockaway -- we believe he deserves to continue to serve in District 7.
Toback worked diligently with constituents to complete the long-awaited lighthouse project at the Triangle in Oceanside despite bureaucratic delays, and he is helping provide funds for the Village of Island Park to install surveillance cameras in its downtown in an effort to curb crime. He has spearheaded the county's construction project to improve traffic flow on heavily congested Rockaway Turnpike, and has had traffic lights aligned on Peninsula Boulevard in the Five Towns so that Sabbath observers can cross more safely. He is also working to reconfigure the traffic signal at the triangle intersection on Broadway in Hewlett.
Before and since the recent rash of bias-related incidents in Oceanside, Cedarhurst and Inwood, the four-term legislator has worked with police to focus on these and other crime-related issues. While we would like to see not just a few plainclothes police patrolling our streets, but more officers in patrol cars when the county adds personnel next summer, the fact remains that the district remains a safe place to live.
While some constituents complain that Toback is not as familiar a face in their communities as he once was, he lives in Oceanside, maintains a law office in Hewlett and gives constituents his cell phone number, so he continues to have a finger on the pulse of his district. You can still say he knows the district well, knows what his constituents want and need, and has the experience to represent their interests effectively in the Legislature.
Toback's opponent, Republican Howard Kopel is a longtime Lawrence resident, an attorney and the chief executive officer of a Valley Stream-based company that provides real estate transaction services. Kopel has raised some good points in his campaign. We can't argue with his stand against high taxes and spending, and we, too, suspect that the county's continuing efforts to create budgets without tax increases will inevitably result in large deficits.
Kopel is in favor of spending more for basic services, such as hiring more police officers and maintaining our roads. When he talks of cuts, however, he's too general and vague, providing too few solutions, beyond cutting patronage jobs, as a way to effectively reduce costs.
Kopel, who has no governmental experience, either in office or in political organizations, points to his 20-plus years of running a business as a solid basis on which to govern -- particularly when it comes to budgets. But managing a business, where budgets are based on supply and demand and a company's need to attract customers, and government budgeting, which is driven solely by taxation, are fundamentally different forms of financing. Being good at one doesn't necessarily make someone good at the other.
Also, we expected an inexperienced candidate like Kopel to get out on the campaign trail and learn more about the specific issues of concern to constituents in other areas of the 7th District, including parts of Oceanside, Island Park, Valley Stream and East Rockaway. He said that, if elected, he would get to know those areas better, and we don't doubt that. But it's important to get to know those areas during a campaign.
So, while Kopel raised some important issues -- issues that Toback should take a closer look at -- we believe the challenger is too short on solutions to make him a more effective legislator. Toback, on the other hand, has a record of success and experience, remains accessible to his constituents and has worked hard to earn a fifth term as legislator. We endorse his re-election.
