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Suffolk County Budget

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Steve Bellone. Stock photo by Rita J. Egan

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone released the 2022 Recommended Operating Budget that will allow the county to recover and reemerge stronger from the COVID-19 pandemic, and focuses on strategic investments in water quality infrastructure, public safety, small businesses and local downtowns to foster a strong economic recovery.

Additionally, the budget freezes General Fund property taxes and complies with the New York State 2% Property Tax Cap for the tenth year in a row. 

Suffolk County will once again project an operating surplus in 2022 for the third year in a row. The total 2022 Recommended Budget is $3.88 billion.

“Even as we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s recommended budget focuses on a strong recovery by making large-scale investments in water quality infrastructure, public safety, main street businesses and our county workforce,” Bellone said. “The budget does all this while remaining structurally balanced, protecting taxpayers at all costs and securing the county’s financial future.”

 Highlights of the County Executive’s Recommended Budget include: 

Water Quality Infrastructure Investments

Bellone has made Suffolk County a recognized leader statewide in efforts to protect and improve water quality. 

Scientists have identified the lack of wastewater treatment as a significant threat to Long Island’s environment and economy. 

For decades, cesspools and septic systems have discharged excess nitrogen pollution into the environment, culminating in recent years in beach closures, toxic algae and fish kills. 

To stop and reverse nitrogen pollution from cesspools and septic systems, Bellone launched the Reclaim Our Water initiative, which includes connection to sewers in some areas, and the installation of Innovative Alternative Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems where sewers are not a practical or cost-effective solution.

The Recommended Budget will invest $125 million in a Water Quality Infrastructure Program, funded by the American Rescue Plan.  

The Main Street Recovery Program

Small and Main Street businesses were hit especially hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Many of them had to alter operations, invest in new technology, supplies, and tools to remain open, and some had to shutter their doors entirely. Businesses needed to be able to pivot in real-time to navigate these ongoing challenges. 

Last year, to assist struggling businesses, Bellone launched the Suffolk County Business Recovery Unit, which has worked to address the concerns and questions of the business community during the pandemic. 

The unit launched a number of initiatives, including but not limited to, a Small Business Grant Program, Business Recovery website with information and resources, Business Recovery call center, job board and in partnership with Stony Brook University College of Business, a technology assistance program, gift card program and Pandemic Shift workshops.

With challenges still lying ahead, this year’s Recommended Budget includes $35 million in funding for The Main Street Recovery Initiative, which will be funded by the American Rescue Plan.

The county’s Main Streets and downtowns are critical to the long-term economic success of this region. Suffolk’s economic development plan, Connect Long Island, is centered around this fact. Downtowns are the places to develop the kind of housing diversity that the region needs and that will support small businesses. 

They are also the places to build a mix of uses that will ultimately reduce car trips and thus reduce traffic congestion. Downtowns are also the places to create the kind of vibrancy that is necessary to attract young people, innovators and entrepreneurs to the region. 

These recovery funds will be used to invest in downtowns, invest in infrastructure and projects and in cultural arts institutions. 

The Main Street Recovery Fund will help provide direct assistance to Small Businesses and rent relief to help businesses impacted by COVID-19 and to reduce vacancies in the region’s downtowns.     

Public Safety

This budget makes public safety a priority. Police Academy classes, which will begin in January and September of 2022, will graduate approximately 220 new Suffolk County police officers. 

The Budget also includes funding for a Deputy Sheriff’s class of approximately 30 officers, two Correction Officer classes in June and September of 2022 that will graduate approximately 110 new officers, and 20 new Probation Officers.

The budget also provides funding to implement Police Reform in the Police District and additional funding for east end police departments and other local departments.  Part of that funding will pay for the implementation of Body Worn Cameras.    

County Workforce

This year’s budget provides funding to staff departments to ensure superior delivery of county services and adds funding for 120 new positions, including new mechanics, nurses and public safety dispatchers. The budget also continues to fund positions that previously remained vacant due to the pandemic such as 66 various titles in the Department of Public Works. 

The budget also includes funding for positions in Human Resources and Procurement to better support the county government’s most valuable resource, its workforce, and to save taxpayer dollars by centralizing operations to better coordinate and streamline purchasing processes.

Opioid Settlement Fund

Suffolk County was the first county in New York State to bring litigation against drug makers in connection with the opioid crisis. The county has since reached several multi-million dollar settlement agreements with three major opioid distributors, Amerisource Bergen Drug Corporation, Cardinal Health Inc., and McKesson Corporation, and major retail pharmacies including Walmart, CVS and Walgreens.

The 2022 Operating Budget creates a separate fund for the restricted and non-restricted opioid settlement funds for use in addressing the opioid epidemic.  County Executive Bellone has convened an intra-agency committee with Presiding Officer Rob Calarco, who sponsored the initial legislation to commence litigation against the companies responsible for the Opioid epidemic. 

The Committee is tasked with developing priorities related to the settlement agreements the county is receiving from Opioid distributors, manufacturers and pharmacies. The Committee has engaged with key stakeholders within the substance abuse community, including non-profit service providers with expert-level experience in harm reduction, prevention, treatment and recovery services.

Protecting Taxpayers 

The 2022 budget, which freezes the County Tax for the 10th year in a row, also includes a number of additional financial measures designed to protect taxpayers in Suffolk County. The proposed budget takes an intensive approach to building reserves and contingency funds to safeguard future years’ finances. The County’s Tax Stabilization Reserve Fund is funded at the highest level in its history. Additional reserve funds including the Retirement Contribution Reserve Fund, the Debt Service Reserve Fund and Insurance Reserve Fund are also funded.  This budget also creates several contingent funds to further stabilize the county’s long-term fiscal position.

The Budget includes contingencies for snow and ice removal and road repair costs, accrued liability from employee benefits, and most notably a contingent fund to pay every deferred employee salary ever implemented – including those instituted by prior administrations.  This budget pays off previous debt from deferrals and pension amortization and from the sale/leaseback of the H Lee Dennison Building.  These fiscally responsible actions will help deliver lower interest rates and eliminate the need for short term borrowings, both of which will ultimately save taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. 

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Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone. Photo by Julianne Mosher

After weeks of warnings and missives about an upcoming budget shortfall, Suffolk officials finally published this upcoming year’s budget, one that has to take into consideration an apparent $437 million deficit over the next two years. Cuts won’t be instituted until the middle of 2021.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) revealed a 2021 recommended operating budget of $3.197 billion, representing $33 million less than the current year’s budget. It is a reaction to a total revenue shortfall of $325 million in 2020.

In a proposed budget released Oct. 9, the county would be letting go 500 full-time employees. The county exec said it would also mean a reduction in health care and mental health services, the loss of two full classes of trainees at the police academy and the elimination of 19 bus routes. 

Most cuts will be implemented July 1, 2021. County officials said this gives time in case some federal aid is received in the future.

“We have submitted a COVID-19 budget with cuts that would have been unimaginable just a short time ago,” Bellone said on a call with reporters Oct. 13. “These cuts should not happen, these are cuts that are devastating in many ways and would in effect undermine our recovery.”

The budget accounts for a sales tax loss from 2019 to 2020 of an estimated $131.7 million. The anticipated sales tax for 2021 is still $102.5 million less than 2019’s figures.

Among other losses across the board, the one increase seems to be property taxes from a real estate boom on Long Island. Suffolk County received $4 million more than last year, and anticipates $18.6 million more in 2021 than this current year.

In expenditures, contractual expenses and employee benefits are also set to marginally increase.

The county expects a negative fund balance for 2021 of about $176.98 million. Overall, Bellone said Suffolk could be looking at a cumulative $460 million deficit within the next year.

This year’s budget was originally set to roll in back in September, but it has since been delayed until the start of this month. The projected budget also may be another general cry for help to the federal government. Suffolk officials also decry the withholding of state aid to the tune of $1.9 billion to local municipalities.

Cutting employees would save about $25 million next year. The bus route cuts, along with reductions to the Suffolk County Accessible Transportation bus service affecting a total of 2,500 riders of both systems, will save $18 million. The police class cuts will save approximately $20 million, while a 50% cut across the board for contract agencies, which include substance abuse clinics, mental health providers, domestic violence shelters and gang prevention programs, would save another $8 million in 2021 and annualized savings of $16 million.

The budget also shows an overall 1.9% increase in taxes for the police district, though that remains under the New York State tax cap.

Bellone has constantly reiterated Suffolk’s need for federal funds over the past few months, holding press conference after press conference to reiterate loss of services because of COVID-19-induced budget shortfalls. Republicans in the Legislature, however, have consistently attacked the executive for what they have called fiscal mismanagement over the past few years, citing Suffolk’s bond downgrades and a report from Tom DiNapoli (D), the New York State comptroller, saying Suffolk was the most fiscally stressed county in the state in 2019.

Bellone, on the other hand, claimed he inherited in 2012 a $500 million deficit but that the County finished 2019 with a surplus. He added the county would have been on track for $50 million surplus in 2020 that would have wiped out the accumulated deficit prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Suffolk did receive $257 million in CARES Act funding in April, as well as an additional $26.6 million for public transportation. Officials have said most or all that funding has been spent or earmarked, and it does not help cover overall losses.

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Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone. File photo by Alex Petroski

Suffolk County’s current and future financial outlook has been a topic of conversation for months, and a nonprofit founded to ensure government transparency is taking notice, following County Executive Steve Bellone’s (D-West Babylon) presentation to the state Senate and Assembly representatives in Albany Feb. 14.

Bellone visited the capital last week to discuss Suffolk’s “daunting” fiscal challenges going forward. Among his eight points addressed during the presentation was a request for authority from New York State to obtain bonds for separation pay of law enforcement officers for 2017 and 2018, a point of contention raised repeatedly by Suffolk County Legislator Rob Trotta (R-Fort Salonga). Reclaim New York, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization established to “educate New Yorkers on issues like affordability, transparency and education,” echoed a similar sentiment to Trotta’s following the presentation.

“Suffolk County has a problem: it spends too much on its police department,” a Feb. 15 post on the organization’s blog said in part. “Its 2,397 officers were paid an average of $161,463 last year, far more than any other county, or town police officers, or Nassau County’s police, for that matter. Spending reached this level after years of political action by the police, who spent in 2015 more than $600,000 influencing local elections–from one PAC alone. Now, having fallen behind on those expenses … Bellone is proposing borrowing $60 million because the county doesn’t have enough cash for payouts on unused sick and vacation time, that Suffolk cops were promised years ago.”

Doug Kellogg, the organization’s communications director, said in a phone interview Reclaim New York doesn’t currently have plans to begin a project or campaign pertaining specifically to the police contract, which the county and the Police Benevolent Association agreed on and which runs from 2011 to 2018, but they do plan on monitoring Suffolk’s budget and financial outlook going forward.

“It’s really starting to get out of control,” Kellogg said. “The path can get worse.”

Trotta has said in past interviews he feels like he’s alone in calling out the county’s financial situation relating to the police department contract.

“The county finances are in total shambles,” Trotta said during an interview in his Smithtown office Nov. 15. “[The other legislators are] sticking their head in the sand. They’re not addressing the real problems. No one wants to address the problems. You need colossal change.”

Following the meeting, Trotta said it was “typical” of Bellone to ask to borrow to pay for the retirement pay for police officers. He added he’s been in contact with Reclaim New York and plans to work with them to inform the public about the county’s finances.

“I’m going to work with them because together we could get the word out to the public on how bad it really is,” Trotta said in a phone interview. “The title says it all — we need to take back New York.”

Vanessa Baird-Streeter, a spokeswoman for Bellone, said in a phone interview the request regarding bonds for separation pay was just a small part of his presentation, but if obtained the funds would improve public safety.

“In the future we’ll be able to hire more police officers to ensure our county is safe,” she said.

Bellone’s presentation also included a justification for borrowing to close the budget gap.

“Allowing for this five-year bonding will allow Suffolk County to protect taxpayers and public safety by smoothing out the expense associated with an anticipated increase in retirements,” he said. “Bonding will allow Suffolk County to retain the resources and fiscal flexibility to continue to hire new officers, which is critical to maintain public safety and save taxpayer dollars over several years.”

A look at the county budget by the legislature’s budget review office in October resulted in a warning.

“The county’s structural deficit is increasingly driving our decisions,” the office’s director Robert Lipp said in the review. “The county sets a bad precedent when paying for operating expenses with borrowing.”

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