id="isPasted">By Seth I. Koslow
Merriam-Webster defines courage as “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear or difficulty.”
In local government, we don’t expect the type of courage that you saw in the people who stormed the beaches of Normandy, or who run into burning buildings. However, we do expect our elected officials to fight for us when danger is on horizon – not retreat or remain in the thrall of a sycophantic political cult.
Today, Donald Trump and his Republican accomplices in Congress voted to strip healthcare from nearly 17 million Americans; gut Medicaid to the tune of $1 trillion; rip nutrition assistance away from millions of families; drive up energy costs; destroy investments in clean, renewable energy; and claw back funding for Pell grants – all to give billionaires more than $4.5 trillion in tax cuts they don’t need.
What does this economic wrecking ball mean for Nassau County – an economically diverse community of 1.4 million people? In addition to the $13 million in new tax burdens for Nassau, it will strip away $90 million in hospital funding, knock at least 66,000 people off of Medicaid and another 16,000 off of Affordable Care Act coverage.
With catastrophe looming, Bruce Blakeman failed to fight for us – the people who elected him – because he lacks the political courage necessary to stand up to Trump on our behalf.
Don’t be distracted by the crumbs Republicans are throwing Nassau County on the State and Local Tax (SALT) reductions that sunset after 5 years. The monstrous GOP tax bill will make the middle and working classes poorer and sicker, destroy job creation in emerging economic sectors like green energy, and saddle my children and yours with trillions more in national debt – all so that Trump and his ultra-rich cronies can buy more yachts.
While Blakeman has not had the courage to speak up against Trump, his actions – and inaction - say more than his words ever could – like how he celebrated Trump’s nonsensical, regressive tariffs in the Rose Garden.
Blakeman and the Republican Legislative Majority could demonstrate political courage by passing my legislation to bring Nassau’s astronomical business permit costs in line with our neighbors. Instead, they are burying it out of pure politics.
Catastrophic Medicaid cuts threaten to undermine services for students with disabilities and healthcare access for hundreds of thousands of Long Islanders. $300 billion in cuts to the Supplemenal Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will end vital aid that helps keep 150,000 Long Islanders from going hungry. As Nassau University Medical Center – a healthcare lifeline for Nassau’s most vulnerable patients – hangs in the balance, Blakeman uses the hospital and its future as a political football - rather than doing the hard work to save it.
With the real cost of living about to soar for families that are already living paycheck to paycheck – and the GOP tax bill poised to make it even worse – there is plenty our County Executive can do to make life better and more affordable.
The County Executive could realign our red-light camera ticket fees to ensure the program is about public safety, not generating revenue. I introduced legislation to accomplish that and to give overcharged Nassau residents the refund they deserve. Blakeman and Nassau Republicans responded by telling the public, “Tough luck.”
The County Executive could stop wasting money – over $20 million at last count – on outside legal contracts for cases we can and should be handling in-house. The savings could be applied toward fulfilling his promise to lower our property taxes – something that, no matter how he tries to spin it, still hasn’t happened in his first three and a half years in office
Most importantly, he could finally fix Nassau’s broken, inequitable assessment system, which under his watch has only grown more unfair, more indefensible, and makes hard-working families that don’t grieve pay more taxes. Instead, he leaves the system dysfunctional so that the tax certiorari firms keep making windfall profits – and keep filling GOP campaign coffers.
Instead of fighting for the future of Nassau County, Bruce Blakeman has proven that he only fights for himself, for attention, and for his own political future.
He may think running Nassau County is “his show” – but if he doesn’t have the courage to do his job, it’s time for us to change the channel.
Seth I. Koslow represents the 5th District in the Nassau County Legislature. He lives in Merrick.