Publication:
Newsday
A mountainous budget deficit has been eating up vast amounts of his staff's time, but Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone is not letting short-term budget woes keep him from thinking big and long-term. He needs to do both. His Connect Long Island outline of the way the county will go about economic development has a good core approach and a couple of innovative ideas. But the budget reality won't go away, and Bellone will have to make even tougher choices very soon -- and lean a little harder on legislators.