Thursday, October 1, 2026
Across Nassau County, our government has been hampered by a brazen disparity in the delivery of services to our communities. Fueled by raw politics, this partisan neglect has caused harm to the communities we serve on numerous fronts — harm that should have been avoided.
As a former member of the Legislature’s Aircraft Noise Committee, I am keenly aware of how poorly managed airplane traffic from neighboring Kennedy Airport negatively impacts the environment and quality of life in Elmont. Unfortunately, the committee the Republican majority formed was nothing more than a show committee, and it dissolved without holding a single substantive meeting — a classic Nassau GOP publicity stunt on a critical issue that demands real solutions. Similarly, on the federal level, the best efforts of our local representatives to address this issue are caught up in a toxic stew of partisanship and misguided cuts by the Trump administration.
Traffic safety is another realm in which the Town of Hempstead and Nassau County have the tools and the jurisdiction to make a difference — but must routinely be pushed to act. This ever-present risk was made tragically evident on July 23, when a 30-year-old Elmont resident was killed in a crash on Heathcote Road near Belmont Park, and on Aug. 5, when a 77-year-old bicyclist traveling on Meacham Avenue was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver in an SUV.
Incidents like these are why fighting for safe roads will always be a top legislative priority. Working together, we have advocated for and secured new traffic signals and speed indication devices to calm traffic. We have also gotten major roadways repaved and secured millions in our capital plan to overhaul Elmont Road, Meacham Avenue and Dutch Broadway and make these heavily traveled roads safer for pedestrians and motorists alike. To build on these improvements, I urge the town and county to explore speed humps to combat speeding on some of District 3’s most treacherous roads.
Yes, we’re making progress, but it’s frustratingly slow. That’s what happens when misguided leaders transform the most standard government functions into political showdowns — and elected officials like County Executive Bruce Blakeman have been all too eager to throw their arms around this destructive Trumpian MAGA template. With Blakeman, who seems to think his primary role is to lavish praise on Trump, ignite culture wars and use the county as a launching pad for what he sees as bigger and better things, the impact has been especially acute.
Nassau’s broken and inequitable assessment system — which consistently shifts a disproportionate tax burden onto majority-minority communities like the ones I serve — is worse than ever, despite Blakeman’s ridiculous claim that he somehow “fixed it.” He hasn’t cut taxes despite his many promises to do so, and county fees are unjustly high across the board.
Then there’s how the Blakeman administration has demonstrated little interest in fair, equitable and responsive government over the past three and a half years. One of the clearest examples is his administration of Community Revitalization Program grants, which help fund our local first responders, villages, schools, parks and libraries. To date, Blakeman has signed off on 50 grant requests in Republican districts — and not a single one in regular order for districts served by Democratic legislators. This is outrageous, and unprecedented.
The only way the Democratic delegation was able to move our grants was to force Blakeman to. This spring, my colleagues and I successfully leveraged our votes for the 2025 capital plan — which requires a 13-vote supermajority to pass — and Blakeman bundled 14 CRP grants for first responders, totaling $1.3 million, into the capital plan.
While I am grateful that our efforts yielded $228,980 in county funding for the Valley Stream Fire Department to buy a quick-response truck and $238,993 for the village to buy a Caterpillar 930 Wheel Loader for storm and emergency response, it’s another case of how a seemingly straightforward task was obstructed by partisan politics and one-party rule.
It’s often said that “all politics is local,” and that will certainly be the case in the months ahead. Your vote is your voice this November, and every election year — and together, our collective power can change the course of our county and send a message that we will no longer accept dysfunction in the halls of government.
Carrié Solages, of Valley Stream, represents Nassau County’s 3rd Legislative District.
