Our Town

Our Town

“Such a nice place to live and raise family”

Election Day, 2013, has come and gone and now is the time for all the citizens of  Huntington Township to come together, hold hands, and sing “koom-by-ya”. If you believe that, I have a bridge for sale in Brooklyn (real cheap).

        “The Town of Huntington is located in northwestern Suffolk County, New York. The Long Island Sound forms         its northern border, and Nassau County forms the western border. Huntington was named an All-America City in 2002 by the National Civic League.” [1]

        “The 2010 census indicates that the population of the town is 203, 264. A 2007 estimate indicates that the median income for a household in Huntington was $102,865. The population of Huntington is predominantly young, with over 60% of resident being under the age of 45.” [1]
Villages in the Town of Huntington [1]

·         Asharoken

·         Huntington Bay

·         Lloyd Harbor

·         Northport

 Hamlets in the Town of Huntington [1]

·      Centerport ·      Cold Spring Harbor ·      Commack ·      Dix Hills ·      East Northport

·         Eatons Neck ·         Elwood ·         Fort Salonga ·         Greenlawn ·         Halesite

·         Huntington Station ·         Huntington ·         Melville ·         South Huntington ·         West Hills

                               

It isn’t rocket science to figure out that we live in one of the more affluent areas of the entire Country. Say you assumed an average household of four (4) people that would give you approximately 50,800 total households in Huntington Township. With a total of $102,865.00 a year per household, we are looking at a very large number from which the Town draws its revenues:

            $5,225,542,000.00………………………………………..over 5 billion dollars.

            The Town’s budget for 2014 is $185,200,000.00……close to 200 million.

So, the Town needs about 3.5% of our earnings to function. Why is it then that in a working class neighborhood we are paying almost double (x2) that percentage in Real Estate Taxes to the Town of Huntington Tax Collector? And, guess what? We haven’t even touched all the other revenue streams that the Town relies on; permits & fees, business taxes, State & Federal Funding, etc. We’re not talking highs and lows. We’re talking middle class, average, median income levels per household. It is very apparent that our Town’s tax code has gotten so far out of hand that we are paying an exorbitant amount of money for a set of basic services. Does anyone in this Town ever take even a cursory glance at their Tax Bill? By the way this Town votes every Election Day, I would have to reach the conclusion that only a very few of us know how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. And, most of those who do seem to end up behind closed doors at Town Hall making deals and spending money that we citizens simply don’t have.

Take a look at the “Referendum” voting from last week. If you actually read these, you would see the length to which our elected officials will go to keep their hands in your wallet.

“1. Do we want casinos?
                        Yes: 1,408,845 | No: 1,052,724 [2]
            2. Do we give disabled veterans additional civil service credit after they have been    

      appointed to a civil service position?
                        Yes: 1,931,932 | No: 377,972 [2]
            3. For the next ten (10) years, do we want to keep the debt from sewer systems out of

     the Town borrowing cap?
                        Yes: 1,331,389 | No: 808,552 [2]
            4. Do we want to litigate a bunch of old, disputed land titles in the Adirondacks?

                        Yes: 1,543,486 | No: 587,456 [2]

            5. Do we want to let NYCO Minerals rights to mine another 200 acres upstate?

                        Yes: 1,128,067 | No: 995,656 [2]

            6. Do we want to let Judges serve until they are eighty (80) years old?

                        Yes: 911,503 | No: 1,407,189 [2]

            7. Do we want to let municipal fire districts, ambulance districts, police districts and

                library districts to expand on Town owned property?
                        Yes: 105,020 | No: 58,143” [2]

A majority of these outcomes should be at least a little troubling to the tax payers in this Town. Do we want casinos? Yes, it would be nice to keep a chunk of our gambling dollars here in New York, but don’t believe for a moment that the revenue will go for education, as advertised. Do we want to give disabled veterans a bit of a break? Of course we do, and we should seriously consider doing a whole lot more for veterans. We certainly should be in favor of settling land ownership disputes in upstate New York, and this needs to be done with the Adirondack environment in mind.

Judges are up for mandatory retirement at the age of seventy (70) which is too old by at least ten (10) years, but, no, we don’t want to extend their retirement to eighty (80) years old. That’s a serious “WTF” proposal!

That brings us to #3, #5, and #7.  #3 allows the Town to discount any cost of borrowing for the sewer district from the normal accounting of the Town debt/borrowing cap. This, in effect, allows the Town to borrow more money in each category, thus spending more of the money none of us have. #5 deals with the immediate future of a chemical additive product company that has been allowed to strip-mine in the Adirondacks. It extends their reach into another two hundred (200) acres of pristine forest. Despite promises and contractual liabilities, strip-miming in upstate New York is a problem we can all do without. #7 is another very local, high impact proposition. The Town owns, or has the development rights to, some very attractive properties. By allowing this proposition to pass, we are telling the Town service agencies that they can tie these properties up with minimum stalling and legal tactics for decades. There may well come a time when other uses for these properties are a more definite benefit to the Town’s population. Why would we vote to hand complete and utter stewardship of this land over to our “behind closed doors” political structure?

With the aforementioned 50,800 total households in Huntington Township, we actually turned out a good number of voters last Tuesday; about 30%. Based on past numbers, this is not bad for an off-year election. With this number in attendance, I would have thought that reading might go hand-in-hand with mathematics, and we would finally come to our collective senses and stop the spending spree that the current, old administration gets away with year after year after year. Only the voters have a dog in this fight, and only voters can elect folks to Town positions who will act on our behalf. For too long now we have been hostage to the back room deals, the crony-ism, the behind closed doors, secret, weekend decision making that is going to bankrupt this place we call home. There are alternatives. Pick one, and go with it next time your mark your ballots.

Toe-notes:

            [1] Home  » Towns » Suffolk County » Huntington Township

                                 http://www.longisland.com/town-of-huntington.html

            [2] Statewide and county ballot referendums, originally published: October 17, 2013 3:42 PM
                                Updated: November 5, 2013 8:34 PM, By NEWSDAY STAFF

                                http://www.newsday.com/elections/statewide-and-county-ballot-referendums-1.6273587

The Town of Huntington, New York (11743), November, 2013

 Election Day is coming fast! Let’s look at some numbers!

#1   Town Supervisor                            

       $162.9k **                                                           

       4 / $521.2k
#2   Town Attorney
       $149.8k **
       13 / $1,135.0k

#3   Highway Superintendent
       $146.9k**
       8 / $603.2k
#4   Planning Dir.
       $131.8k **
       21 / 1,455.3k
#5   Town Clerk
       $130.2k**
       8 / $496.6k
#6   Town Engineer
       $128.4k **                                                                  
       7 / $581.6k
#7   Parks Dept.
       $128.3k **
       9 / $639.4k  
#8   Public Safety

       $123.7k **
       27 / $2,029.7k

#9   Waste Mgmt.
       $121.1k **
       4 / $389.7k 

# "f-ing" 10     !Parking.! Meter! !Attendent!
                         !$93.7k! **
                         1 / $93.7k 
#11  Harbor Master
        $90.3k **
        6 / $410.3 
#12  Security Guard
        $90.2k **
        1 / $90.2k
#13  Ice Rink  Mgr.
        $77.4k **
        4 / $232.6k 
#14  Town Council Member
        $76.9k **
        9 / $464.6k  
#15  Hart Bus Driver
        $67.2k **
        17 / $1,142.4k
                                                          

  

Note: **All salary figure reflect full-time employment. They exclude       

 Health Care, Earned PTO, Retirement Funds, & Special Perks(if applicable). The total Department Budget figures are for the 

               titled office only; they are not for remote offices/locations, or 

               the general labor force.

                                              

The positions, salaries, and office budgets, above, are just a sampling of where your Town tax dollars go. When an employee of the Town’s Public Safety Department, "THE PARKING METER ATTENDENT", can earn over $100,000.00 per year with salary, benefits, and overtime, isn’t it time to take a closer look at who’s spending our hard earned cash?

                      WHAT WE HAVE

Most of these folks need to go home and let someone else take over.

                                                   

                                                WHAT WE NEED!                              

                                  
                                                           






        THE MADNESS*!

* Want to make $51,218.50 per year, plus benefits? The Town Planning Office needs a “Planning Aide”.

 More base numbers:

Table 1

Total number of Town employees	full time	700
Total number of Town employees	part time	216
Total Town operating expenses		$181, 264, 125.00
Total Town population		203,264 (2010 census)

Get out your calculators and do some good old multiplying and dividing.

Table 2

Total number of Town employees	916	$181, 264, 125.00 spent	$197,886.60 employee to expenditures ratio
Total Town population	203,264	$181, 264, 125.00 spent	$891.77 per person - annually

                                        What are we getting for our money?

·        We get roads that don’t get plowed correctly, or at all, during the winter.

·        We get a slew of “listed” tree trimmers and their supervisors who can’t seem to keep our streets clear after a storm.

·        We get a sewage plant that overflows when there’s a cloud in the sky.

·        We get a domino effect with the pot-holes in our streets, especially when gas, water, sewer, and drainage is worked on.

·        We get the top of Route 110 in Halesite still flooding even after the millions of dollars we’ve spent to fix the problem.

·        We get parking garages at the train station that have elevators that don’t work, have urine in all the corners, and structural damages that no one seems to able to address.

·        We get elected Town Officials who, along with their Town salaries, have second incomes that put them in the $250,000.00 range every year.

·        We get elected Town Officials who don’t know when it’s their time to go (probably due to the Town salaries they make).

·        We get Republicans who switch Parties simply to get elected for another term.

·        We get Democrats who switch Parties simply to get another term.

    

&   We get elected Officials and challengers who can’t resist using fear and smear  tactics to get elected, or re-elected, every November.  

&   We get at least two  Political Parties who feel no remorse in bastardizing the democratic process  inside their own committees.

JUST SAY…………..NO!

                             What needs to happen to change all this for the better?

·        We need strong voices from a third Party organization, or people with no Party affiliation.

·        We need to challenge how our Town governance works, and force the processes out of the dark recesses of “business as usual”.

·        We need someone who is ready, willing, and able to restructure our Town tax codes.

·        We need a Town Hall administration that refuses to keep borrowing money, and running up deficits.

·        We need term limits at all levels.

·        We need to stop padding the Town payroll with family members.

·        We need to have our elected Officials pay sole attention to Town business and not undertake outside interests for padding their incomes.

·        We need to bring the Town payroll under control and have salaries more reflective of the private sector.

·        We need folks who know how to negotiate contracts with the residents of Huntington in mind.

·        We need to put the hammer down on our Town’s criminal element. Suffolk County Police have most of them on speed dial.

·        We need positive, aggressive trimming of the “fat” in Town Hall.

There are some third Parties out there that are just lying in wait to be summoned forward. I have been going over some of their platforms and two of these organizations jumped off the page at me. The “Modern Whig Party” states to be pragmatic, centrist, common sense, and rational rather than ideological. They seem, on the surface, to embody the good points of the “Libertarian Party”, one of which involves giving the States more autonomy. Their stand on immigration, our borders defenses, our Armed Forces, and our Veterans makes takes a very logical, rational approach. The “Veterans Party of America” is very similar in its approach to government. It does give a lot more weight to the Military and to Military Veterans (I kind of like that). There are plenty of other political Parties to consider; Libertarian, Independent, Social Democrat, Green Party, Coffee Party, etc. The first two that I mentioned caught me interest because of their “don’t talk about it – get off your butt and do something about it” attitude. What a refreshing experience it would be to have a government that actually planned what they were going to do, and, then, did it.

                       Modern Whig Party

                                               Service and Solutions

I pick on the Town Of Huntington for a number of reasons. First, it’s my home town. Second, I’ve had it with Washington, so I’m turning my attention to local politics rather than National. Thirdly, I have seen the inner workings of Party politicking in this town, and I am disgusted at the total disregard some folks at the top have for even the most basic of democratic processes. I am also sick and tired of the arrogance that our elected Officials exude. Under our democratic form of governance, they are paid by us and work for us; not the other way around. Election Day is fast upon us, so I will try my best in the allotted time to voice my displeasure with the status quo.