Residents of Nassau County’s 13th District have spent many years under the representation of Legislator Tom McKevitt.
A lifelong East Meadow resident, McKevitt was first elected to the Legislature in 2017, and represents East Meadow and Salisbury as well as parts of North Levittown and Bethpage. He previously served many of the same constituents for over a decade as a state assemblyman.
Under new guidance shifting local elections to even-numbered years in New York state, McKevitt, who won re-election in 2025, is now seeking another term.
McKevitt, a Republican, spoke positively of the Legislature’s work over the past year. “I think what we continue to do is make sure we manage our budget and finances very carefully,” he told Herald reporters at a roundtable interview. “Since I’ve been in the county [Legislature], we’ve never raised taxes, and certainly we intend to do that as long as possible.”
Other significant accomplishments, McKevitt noted, include the county’s ban of kratom, an unregulated herbal extract. Regular use can lead to addiction, and highly concentrated extracts can cause an overdose.
“There was some pushback from the kratom industry,” he said, “and we said we don’t care because of these young people’s lives, and that’s what it comes down to.”
Nassau County passed a law earlier this year targeting human trafficking by banning hotel and motel bookings under eight hours, on which McKevitt worked closely with fellow Legislator Mike Giangregorio. East Meadow residents, he said, are likely familiar with the Coliseum Motor Inn, which was partially demolished by the site owner a few years ago, following a saga of illegal activities taking place at the Hempstead Turnpike property.
The law mandates record-keeping, and allows police to review bookings at hotels. “They have to turn it over to us, so we can determine if there are traffic patterns,” McKevitt explained.
While the Nassau University Medical Center is no longer under county control, McKevitt said he remains committed to working with partners in government and the facility’s leadership to ensure the viability of the safety-net hospital.
Behind NUMC sits the Nassau County Correctional Facility, which, McKevitt said, has undergone structural improvements in recent years. A few minutes west on Hempstead Turnpike, the county has also settled litigation with organizers of the cricket World Cup, held at Eisenhower Park in 2024, he said. The field where a temporary stadium was erected has since been fully restored.
Flock cameras — artificial intelligence-powered license plate readers — have stirred nationwide controversy over privacy violations and misuse by law enforcement officers. McKevitt noted that in Nassau County, the data is strictly limited, and only accessible by a member of the county police department’s intelligence division, should they make a specific request for information, if warranted.
“It’s how you train and how you monitor,” McKevitt said, “and [Commissioner] Pat Ryder has shown me that it’s very limited in Nassau County.”
As a legislator, McKevitt has always operated with the promise of maintaining the things people love about living in Nassau County — and that’s what he intends to keep doing. “I think the most important thing is to show people that we are giving them value for their money,” he said.
