Letter To The Editor: Hector Gavilla Responds To Susan Berland

LONG ISLAND, NY — Patch recently sent out questionnaires to candidates for Suffolk County Legislature's 16th L.D., Democrat incumbent Susan Berland and Republican challenger Hector Gavilla. Gavilla wrote a letter to the editor regarding what Berland said in her Q&A.

Gavilla's full letter is below:

"This is in response to some misinformation my opponent said about me.

"My opponent demanded she be allowed to video conference from her second home in Key West and allow her votes to count. She did not want to physically attend the meetings. She wanted her Skyping to count as being present for the meetings. This prompted me to review her schedule on the legislature website. I discovered she was only required to attend about 52 meetings this year. There were approximately only two days a week she was required to be at the Legislature. As early as January, she was demanding that the legislature allow her to do this. In several interviews with the media, she did not believe the five-week summer vacation was enough time. The fact is, she refused to come back to New York to go to the meetings. The meetings for the entire year were scheduled back in January 2019. This gave everyone enough time to plan their summer vacations.

"New York State Comptroller [Thomas] DiNapoli recently announced that Suffolk County is experiencing a fiscal crisis. We have a $3 billion budget with more than $2 billion in debt. We continue adding $200 million more in debt each year. Our county spends more money than it takes in. To pay the bills, Steve Bellone has "moved" money between funds. The county has also created new abusive taxes disguised as fees. To record a new mortgage or satisfaction of a mortgage, you must pay about $500. If you need a power of attorney to sign the documents for you, add another $300. This was previously a flat fee of $65 for many years regardless of how many documents were recorded. The profit from these fees were moved to other departments to make the payroll.

"The County spent $250,000 for a study of the red light cameras. When the report proved accidents increased, they threw the report in the garbage and voted to extend this scam for five more years. The cameras generate $30 million a year in revenue.

"We must cut spending immediately and stop the abusive taxes on the people. We have 27 departments and agencies in Suffolk County. We must do more cutting of the $3 billion in expenditures. I propose we abolish the Suffolk County Legislature and return to the Board of Supervisors or some other format. Yes, I want to abolish the very job that I am seeking. This would give the county a savings of $10 million per year. This would cut the size of government and help us cut spending. Instead of 18 legislators meeting regularly, the 10 Town Supervisors would meet to discuss the people's business. This might face challenges, as the creation of the Suffolk County Legislature was the result of a 1963 United States Supreme Court Case. It could be argued today that residents in Brentwood and North Bay Shore are underrepresented by legislators who do not live in their communities.

"I would also seek to repeal the public campaign finance law that will pay each county candidate $50,000 for their campaign materials and advertising using expected revenue from OTB's Jake's 58. This would stop the county from paying about $2 million of taxpayer money to fund candidates' campaigns. Instead, that money must be used to pay down the debt.

"One reason why housing is not affordable is high property taxes. A homeowner will rent an accessory apartment to help pay their mortgage payments and taxes. If you are one of the lucky 20 percent to win the lottery for an affordable rental, the other 80 percent of tenants must pay higher rents. The surrounding community must subsidize the landlords of these properties with even higher taxes. The 20 percent affordable housing has the unintended consequence of raising the taxes for the majority of homeowners. If two out of every 10 homes in your neighborhood is 'affordable,' they are also paying much lower property taxes. This places the burden of property taxes on the 80 percent who must subsidize the 20 percent. Affordable housing in perpetuity makes it unsustainable for the 80 percent, because 100 percent of the people need the same services."

Read Gavilla's original Q&A with Patch here.