Levy says budget will again freeze taxes

DG YUEN PHOTO
Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy came to Riverhead Thursday morning
to tout his administration’s efforts to stabilize the county’s finances
while continuing to preserve farmlands and other open spaces.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy came to Riverhead Thursday morning to tout his administration’s efforts to stabilize the county’s finances while continuing to preserve farmlands and other open spaces.
Speaking at the Riverhead Chamber of Commerce’s public breakfast forum event in Polish Town, Mr. Levy said the draft 2011 county budget he will release next week calls for a county property tax freeze, the seventh in a row.
“We’ve had to make some tough decisions,” he said. They include switching the responsibility for patrolling the Long Island Expressway from the county police to the Sheriff’s office, which he said saved $20 million over two years.
After the address both Supervisor Sean Walter and Mike Foley of Reeve’s Park asked for the county’s help in acquiring a Sound Avenue property slated for commercial development.
The town has all but exhausted is open space budget, the supervisor said, adding,  “This property is going to sell for a lot more than a million dollars.”
With unoccupied storefronts through the town, “We don’t need strip mall to divert traffic to a historic Sound Avenue corridor,” said Mr. Foley, who has been part of the strip mall opposition since the project was first proposed in 2003.
Mr. Levy asked the supervisor to join him on a tour of the property after the event and said he will consider adding the property to Suffolk’s preservation priority list.
The county executive later appeared at a press conference on Reeves Avenue at which he announced the purchase of development rights to 30 acres at the Kozak Family Farm.
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