NASSAU COUNTY CIVIC ASSOCIATION, INC.

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November 9, 2015

The lesson of Oyster Bay

Voters send a message

The Town of Oyster Bay is once again in the news but this time its not about corruption, its about the election. In a surprise outcome in the race for Oyster Bay Supervisor, long time Supervisor John Venditto trails his Democrat challenger, John Mangelli by 68 votes. With over fifteen hundred absentee ballots still left to be counted, the outcome is far from certain. The one thing that is certain, voters sent specific message to the town, no more dishonesty on taxes. While news reports on corruption are not helpful during an election cycle, voters often overlook the smoke unless there is clear evidence linking the candidate to specific ethical or criminal charges. Newsday often out of touch with Long Islanders on a host of issues, opined in an editorial that the message was about corruption but made no mention of taxes. We disagree. Lying to voters has serious consequences.   

One of the most significant issues for voters across Long Island are property taxes which include school taxes. Taxes were the defining issue in the last two elections for County Executive. Just ask Tom Suozzi. During the last three elections, Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto and members of the town board ran on the “tax Revolt” ballot line. Their rallying cry was fiscal prudence, keeping taxes low and "making Oyster Bay a great place to live". They also ran on a major party line which has a platform of smaller government, less spending and low taxes. Yet the town has amassed more than three quarters of a billion dollars in debt due to excessive spending and has increased the size of local government. In an ongoing fiscally dishonest scheme, the town has regularly allowed automatic spending increases tied to the inflation rate making the dubious claim that there was no "real" tax increase adjusted for inflation. Yet voters were willing to overlook higher taxes and spending for the promise of "making Oyster Bay a great place to live". 

Even so, there are limits. For the last two years, the Oyster Bay town board delayed passage of the town budget until after the election in order to raise taxes. In November of 2013, they voted  unanimously 7-0 to raise the town’s share of property taxes by 8.8%. In November 2014, they did it again but this time there was no mention of a tax increase in the budget proposal prior to the election. When they met again to vote on the budget, they submitted an amended budget with the tax hike. The crass move was beyond dishonest and had the strong whiff of arrogance. Sensing political peril and voter anger, the town board passed the 2016 budget with no tax increase before this year's election. The damage was already done. Voters decided to send a clear message of disapproval. While all of the  incumbents running in Oyster Bay handedly won re-election, Supervisor John Venditto, a well known and well liked retail politician was felled by a virtually unknown opponent running a rag tag campaign. While it is possible that John Venditto may survive once the absentee ballots are counted, it is certain that he got the message loud and clear, keep your word on taxes.