Question: Thoughts on Skelos' Denial of City's $15M Borrowing Plan

State Sen. Dean Skelos in June denied the City of Long Beach's request to borrow $15 million in an effort to offset a $10 million budget deficit, a proposal that included a promise to pay back the money in ten years. The senator's refusal to allow the bill to reach the senate floor was broached in a question during a candidate forum between Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach) and Republican challenger Dr. David Sussman of Lawrence at Long Beach Library Oct. 18.

It was one of about fifteen questions asked among the approximately 50 attendees that evening, and read by Marion Flemming of Hempstead, the moderator at the forum hosted by the Long Beach League of Women Voters. 

What are your thoughts on Dean Skelos refusing to allow the Long Beach bill for deficit financing to be presented to the senate for a vote?

Weisenberg, a lifelong Long Beach resident who was first elected to the assembly in 1989, said that such requests are usually never denied in Albany, but Skelos had his reasons for turning down Long Beach's request to borrow.

“The only thing that upset me was the Newsday article that said that they put the bill in, and we never put a bill in because the senator put a bill in for Mineola to be able to get its money with no cap on it,” Weisenberg explained. “Ours had $15 million. The Nassau County bill didn’t have any cap on it, and they wanted to bond over there to pay off their debt.”

The assemblyman, who said that he couldn't attempt to explain why Skelos denied Long Beach's bill, nevertheless called the matter as a fine example of what happens “when politics take over government.” 

Sussman, a first-time candidate who has sat on the Lawrence Board of Education for the past 18 years, said that in one of his conversations with Skelos, the senator told him that Long Beach asked him for $15 million when all the city needed was $10 million.

“He did remind me that there were debts from Long Beach to in effect buy out certain employees that were allowed to be bonded from the state,” said Sussman, who also said he wasn't speaking for Skelos. He quoted Skelos to the effect that “you can’t kick debt down the road,” which is how the senator characterized the city's borrowing plan in the face of its financial woes.

Sussman went on to call Skelos one of the area's finest legislators, one who "has  fought the New York City Democrat machine." 

The question about Skelos' denial in June was one of various issues that residents asked and included water quality on Long Island, eliminating the toll at the Atlantic Beach Bridge, MTA reform to campaign finance reform, hydro fracturing and personal charity. 

Weisenberg, a former teacher and school administrator, and Sussman, a physician, are running for the 20th Assembly District — which covers the entire Long Beach barrier island, Five Towns, Oceanside, Island Park and parts of East Rockaway and Valley Stream. The two candidates will square off in another forum at the Island Park Library, 176 Long Beach Road, at 7 p.m. Oct. 30.