By Scott Brinton
Leonard was referring to the distinct possibility that Nassau County may be unable to fully restore a $4.5 million cut to the Youth Board of which the crisis center is a part. The cut, announced in February, resulted in a two-thirds reduction in the crisis center's annual $257,000 contract with the county to provide suicide-prevention hotline services. In addition, the center lost $95,000 for its gang-prevention program, which has been eliminated.
County Executive Thomas Suozzi promised to restore cuts to youth-service contracts if he is able to get state approval for three "revenue enhancers" in order to help close a deficit of roughly $130 million in the county's $2.5 billion budget.
The enhancers were:
¥ A surcharge on traffic tickets.
¥ Cameras to photograph motorists who speed through red lights in order to ticket them.
¥ A cigarette tax.
All three enhancers, Leonard said, were included in the 2009-10 state budget, approved in April. But just days before the Legislature voted on the spending plan, the ticket surcharge and cigarette tax proposals were abruptly pulled from it. No one, Leonard said, has told her why. The Legislature later approved the red-light cameras.
Richard Azzoppardi, director of communications for state Sen. Craig Johnson, a Democrat from Port Washington, said that, by law, the bills for the other two enhancers had to be voted on separately from the budget because they required a specific county request that they be approved.
Passing the two bills on their own is a far more onerous task than if they had been included in the state budget. They now require several legislative co-sponsors, committee approvals and, finally, a vote by the full Legislature.
Azzoppardi said that Johnson, who led the fight to win Senate approval for the red-light cameras, supports the ticket surcharge and the cigarette tax, and is sponsoring them in the Senate. Assemblywoman Earlene Hooper, the Democratic deputy majority leader, is sponsoring them in the Assembly. Each bill is moving through committee in both houses, Azzoppardi said.
The bills, he added, "are main priorities for us." He said Johnson hopes to pass them by the end of June.
Still, Leonard worries. She noted that convenience stores that carry cigarettes lobbied heavily against the cigarette tax. "It's not clear whether the Assembly is pushing" the cigarette tax, Leonard said. "There was a lot of push-back on [the measure] from the local [convenience] stores."
Cigarette-selling store owners reportedly argued that people would buy fewer state Lottery tickets if a cigarette tax were imposed and people smoked less, Leonard said.
Nassau County Legislator David Denenberg, a Democrat from Merrick, supports the three revenue enhancers. He said the original deadline for cutbacks to youth services was April 1, but the county was able to push it back to the end of June because it won union concessions worth $42 million, and it received $40 million in federal stimulus money for the Medicare and Medicaid programs, which the county administers locally. The additional money, along with a new heating fuel tax, has helped Nassau narrow -- but not close -- its budget deficit, and thus the threat of permanent cuts to youth services remains.
Denenberg recently took two trips to Albany to lobby for the ticket surcharge, red-light cameras and cigarette tax. With only the red-light cameras passing thus far, Denenberg said, "It's very frustrating."
Leonard wonders why, in a $2.5 billion budget, county officials cannot find $4.5 million in funding and efficiencies in order to save Youth Services. "It's a drop in the bucket for the county," she said.
Calls to Suozzi's office seeking comment were not returned. Denenberg said, "Suozzi's point is that this is a $130 million problem, and I'm looking all over" for more funding. "He doesn't want to go to the taxpayers for everything ... His argument is that he's trying to spread this out."
Leonard, however, said that losing youth-service providers could cost Nassau County dearly in the long run. Many of the agencies work to prevent youth crime in one way or another. "One incarcerated kid can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars," she said.
If the cutbacks stand, Leonard said, "Eventually, we will not be able to provide 24-hour service ... Nassau County is in grave danger of losing its only 24-7 crisis-intervention and suicide-prevention center. If Mr. Suozzi talked to his constituents, he would realize his constituents value our services; they understand how cost-effective youth services are."
More than 40 Nassau County nonprofit youth agencies, including the Bellmore-Merrick Central School District's drug-treatment agency, Tempo Group, are affected by the county contract cuts. "Mr. Suozzi, talk to your constituents and find a way to make these agencies whole again," Leonard said.
Comments about this story? SBrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
