With your support, I was elected as County Executive to make Suffolk County a great place to live, raise a family and operate a business. I work each day to overcome impediments to improving Suffolk County by making the tough decisions to move us forward. For years we have spoken in our region about eliminating unnecessary government offices and the need for common sense consolidations that save taxpayer dollars while delivering more efficient services. This November, we will do something about it.
I have introduced a resolution that asks the Suffolk County Legislature to allow the voters to decide in a referendum whether we should merge these offices under the leadership of an elected Chief Financial Officer. This resolution to will save taxpayer dollars, eliminate duplication and allow our government to deliver services more efficiently.
Suffolk County is currently the only one of New York's 62 counties which elects both a Treasurer and a Comptroller. With Suffolk County facing a massive deficit, my Performance Management office wrote a report that demonstrates that we can save taxpayers more than $1 million per year and deliver better services by consolidating these offices. As the report states, "Consolidating these two financial departments into a unified financial department would result in more efficient financial management through economics of scale, consolidation of functions, streaming of operations, increased and improved application of technology and more accurate and timely cash-flow analyses."
In an editorial, Newsday wrote, "There's a reason that 61 of New York's 62 counties do not elect both a treasurer and a comptroller: To do so makes no sense. Suffolk is the one outlier, but County Executive Steve Bellone hopes to change that, with voter approval."
On July 30, the Suffolk County Legislature will vote on whether they believe the voters of Suffolk County should have the opportunity to support this consolidation in a November referendum. While this idea has been raised before, the urgency of the moment demands that Legislators give the people a voice.
With your support, we will continue to push reforming Suffolk County government and standing up for our taxpayers.
Sincerely,
Steve Bellone
Suffolk County Executive