By Delia DeRiggi-Whitton
As I enter my 14th year as a Nassau County Legislator and reflect upon my time in office, it dawned on me that I have served for all of these as a member of the Legislature’s Minority Caucus. While there have been disagreements with County Executives and my colleagues in the Majority along the way, I have always maintained cordial and productive relationships and worked with numerous County Executives of all political parties to get things done for my district and the taxpayers of Nassau County.
However, since Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman took office in 2022, progress on crucial initiatives, grants, and capital infrastructure proposals has stalled – and Minority Caucus-represented areas have shouldered a disproportionate impact. To get all of our County back on the right track, I urge the Blakeman administration to begin addressing these key priorities:
- Finalize a comprehensive, equitable capital plan that invests in the communities of all 19 legislative districts. Per the Nassau County Charter, a capital plan must be adopted by December 15 each year – but the Blakeman administration has only achieved this once in the last three years. The 2025 plan is once again running late, jeopardizing economic growth, good jobs, and increased safety and quality of life generated by these projects.
- Get the politics out of CRP grants. Since the start of 2024, the Majority has received more than 30 Community Revitalization Program (CRP) grants, and the Minority has received zero. Some proposed grants for volunteer firefighters, village police departments, and other first responders in Minority districts have been held up for years. These funds need to get out to our communities regardless of the Legislator’s party affiliation.
- County Executive Blakeman promised to “fix” Nassau County’s assessment system. He hasn’t – and it’s only gotten worse. The Blakeman administration has frozen the assessed values of our properties for three consecutive years. With each year that passes, the tax rolls become even more unfair and distorted. The Blakeman administration must live up to its promises and put the people ahead of the big tax grievance firms that donate heavily to his campaigns and profit handsomely off a broken system. Until then, the best way to protect yourself from over taxation is to grieve your home’s assessed value – and the deadline to do so is Monday, March 3.
- We need real solutions to stabilize the future of Nassau University Medical Center. NUMC is an essential part of our regional healthcare matrix – it is a level 1 trauma center with a state-of-the-art burn center and an in-demand drug detox facility. Moreover, it serves as a lifeline for some of Nassau County’s most economically vulnerable patients. The Blakeman administration must stop treating this vital facility like a political football and have a serious conversation with New York State about keeping its doors open.
- Distribute the opioid funding that the County has been sitting on for years. During the last several years, the County has received nearly $100 million in settlement funds from the distributors, manufacturers and retailers of addictive opioid drugs that continue to devastate families. However, the Blakeman administration has only spent approximately $3.3 million of that sum to date. It is infuriating that so many people have died during the past year while settlement funds sat in bank accounts collecting interest, and the ordinance currently going through the Legislature to create a grant portal for agencies on the front lines of addiction, treatment, prevention and recovery services is long, long overdue.
- Last but certainly not least – disband the dangerous, illegal militia. Nassau County has one of America’s best trained police departments, and they are instrumental in making us the safest County of our size year after year. An armed militia with minimal training from the County – regardless of its participants’ previous experience or background – is not something the public or police ever asked for or needed, and County Executive Blakeman has no legal authority to marshal such a force. End the militia and allow our outstanding law enforcement professionals to do their jobs without interference.
County Executive Blakeman took an oath to serve all of Nassau’s 1.4 million residents, but his hyper-partisan approach and failure to deliver on promises has been evident throughout the last three years. We deserve better, and addressing these key issues would be a step in the right direction for an administration that has routinely focused on matters far beyond its proper jurisdiction or control.
Delia DeRiggi-Whitton, of Glen Cove, is the Democratic Minority Leader of the Nassau County Legislature. She represents 11th Legislative District and has served in the Legislature since 2012.