Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine gave his State of the County address this afternoon at the general meeting of the County Legislature meeting in Riverhead.
Declaring that “the State of the County is good,” Romaine pledged to improve the county’s financial condition despite the present economic uncertainties.
Part declaration of intentions, part statement of resolve, part expression of assurances, Romaine’s speech, delivered in a conversational tone, stayed positive while acknowledging the challenging economic times that lay ahead.
“I’ve been there before, and I’ve watched this happen, and we get through it all,” Romaine assured the legislators seated around the horseshoe in the Maxine Postal Auditorium.
As Romaine delivered his address this afternoon, Wall Street continued to roil from the imposition of steep tariffs on imports. U.S. stocks, which had picked up value early in the day, tumbled again this afternoon, closing sharply lower.
“I was a legislator in ’87, which you may not remember, but the stock market did a major redress back then,” he said. “And then I was back in the legislature in 2008 and 2009 and I don’t have to tell you what happened then. And then I was supervisor in 2020 when we hit the pandemic,” he said.
“We’ve been through tough times before, and we got through it, and we’ll get through this,” Romaine said.
Romaine noted that the county had four bond upgrades this year, “which says something about our financial state.” It is the result of “sound budgeting” and working closely with the legislature, the county executive said. He said the county will work to further upgrade its bond rating and pay down the county’s outstanding debt.
Romaine renewed his pledge to “never pierce the tax cap,” referring to the state-imposed real property tax levy limit. He noted that eight of Suffolk’s 10 towns pierced the tax cap last year, he noted.
“No matter how tough times get, we will never pierce the tax cap as long as I’m county executive,” Romaine said. He acknowledged that achieving that goal will require “some extraordinary budgeting.” If the tariffs push the country into a recession, decreased spending will mean less sales tax revenue for the county, which relies heavily on sales tax revenue to fund its operations.
“It’s my job, with your help, to balance this budget,” he said. “We owe a responsibility to our taxpayers.”
Romaine also pledged to settle some “large lawsuits” that are pending and that the previous administration “chose not to settle.” He didn’t name specific actions.
The county executive sketched out a wide-ranging, ambitious agenda, touching on a litany of needs he said the county government must address, from improving roads and bridges, to wastewater treatment and providing clean drinking water in areas with contaminated private wells, to open space and farmland preservation, to improving county parks, beaches and historic homes.
He spoke of the need to invest more in public safety, by continuing to fill vacancies in the police department and hiring more highway patrol officers.
Romaine spoke at length about the county’s infrastructure needs, which he said is one of his biggest concerns.
“One of my biggest concerns is our infrastructure. It’s been neglected for too long,” Romaine said. “I am going to start investing in Suffolk and in infrastructure, in our roads, in our drainage, in our sewage. And we’re going to work on things like County Road 39 which has the biggest traffic jam in Suffolk County, called the trade parade. We’re going to work on the Smith Point Bridge, and we’re going to address the problems that were just pointed out on the Ponquogue Bridge. These are all major infrastructures that have problems,” Romaine said.
“We’ve got to start dealing with them. We can’t neglect our infrastructure, because guess what? We can get away with it for a while. Who’s going to pay the price? The price is the future,” he said.
“And then we’re going to talk about sewers, because 70% of this county is on cesspools and septic tanks,” Romaine said. He ticked off some pending sewer projects across the county, including funding the construction of a sewage treatment plant for Mastic Beach and doing a sewer study for Heartland at Pilgrim state, and a wastewater study for Montauk.
“I was a strong supporter, as most of the people around this horseshoe were, of the state environmental bond issue for $4.2 billion,” Romaine said. “I understand there’s a representative from the governor’s office in the audience. So Governor,” he said, more loudly for emphasis, “here’s my challenge: For every dollar we invest as a county, invest in Suffolk from the environmental bond issue, and I’ll direct all that money to sewers, because in the next three and a half years, we’re going to spend over a billion dollars in Suffolk County on sewers,” Romaine declared to applause.
Then he announced another challenge to state and federal representatives. “Believe it or not, a lot of people are still on well water, and believe it or not, those wells … are coming up contaminated,” he said. “Imagine having to drink that water, or bathe your child in that water, or put formula in that water. We need a funding source, and the county will work with the state and the federal government to address contaminated water. It shouldn’t be based on income. It should be based on health results from water quality, so not only in sewers, but let’s, let’s invest in our water infrastructure.
Romaine challenged the state to match Suffolk County’s investment in sewer and clean water infrastructure dollar for dollar.
“What other county is going to do that in this state?” he asked.
Romaine challenged the Long Island Power Authority and PSEG to bury power lines to improve resiliency when storms strike. He also challenged the electric utilities to improve their substations, which he said are not adequate to meet the region’s needs. Inadequate substations are making it difficult to build solar energy facilities, Romaine said. There’s so much opportunity for solar in Suffolk, but LIPA’s substations can’t handle the load.
The county executive said the county will continue to improve its parks, which he said have suffered from neglect. He pledged to build a new pavilion at Cupsogue, one of the county’s two ocean beaches. The pavilion there burned down four years ago, and it’s still not rebuilt.
The other ocean beach owned by the county, at Smith Point, will be the site of the first all-Suffolk oyster festival during the third week of August, Romaine said. “We’re going to promote our oyster growers, and we’re going to talk about the good things that happen in Suffolk.”
Romaine said the county is working on a funding source for restoration of historic homes. “We have over 100 historic homes and buildings in this county, most of them are in a state of neglect and have been neglected. We are going to see that end. We have not invested. We preserve these buildings only to see them fall apart.
He pledged to support every open space initiative and every farmland preservation proposal.
“We were probably pretty close to being number one in the state of all the counties in agricultural production in terms of dollar values,” Romaine said. By some measures, Suffolk is a very wealthy county, Romaine said. “But that doesn’t mean everyone that’s in our county is wealthy. No one in our county should go hungry, particularly children.” He said he wants to connect farms to schools to provide children with healthy, fresh foods for school lunches and at the same time support area farmers.
Romaine said the county is negotiating with all of its employees, and he wants to provide a fair contract to make sure that the county can retain and recruit people to county service. “It is a noble service,” he said.
He spoke of the need to hire more police officers to fill vacancies in the ranks that existed when he took office. He said the county is hiring more detectives and more highway patrol officers.
He expressed support for Suffolk County District Attorney Ray TIerney, who he said is “a great DA, a fantastic guy.”
“I stand with him in opposing dangerous proposals in Albany, like the elder parole bill that would let Colin Ferguson out on parole. I stand with him in opposing the fair and timely parole act. I stand with him on changing the discovery requirements, which allows a lot of cases to be dismissed. I stand with him on bail reform. So I will work with our district attorney, and I hope he can find some support amongst you to join with him in doing things that are for the public’s safety, because we need to be safe. So I fully support the district attorney,” Romaine said.
The county executive also addressed the opioid crisis. “Closing the drug trade from across the southern border is a good thing. We want to see less drugs coming into this country,” he said. “We need to provide more treatment, particularly after potential overdose, because we’ll never win this war, and I need your help in doing that,” he told the legislators.
Romaine said he wants to see the opioid settlement money spent on education, treatment and prevention and called for funds to be distributed to county agencies that provide needed services, in addition to nongovernmental organizations.
Romaine pledged to continue to work closely with the legislators.
“You are the wind to my sail,” he told them. “I can’t lead without you. I need your partnership, and you’ve been very generous, and you’ve given it to me.”
A former longtime county legislator, Romaine expressed respect for their role in government. “I know you’re the only voice for your district, and I want to hear that voice, because together, we are Suffolk, united,” he said. “We are Suffolk, so let’s stand as we have stood together. Let’s solve the problems that confront us. Let’s do what needs to be done,” he said.
“I’m going to leave you with a little phrase in Spanish: Vaya con Dios. May you go with God. Thank you.”
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