Candidate Profile: Gary Pollakusky For Suffolk Legislature

LONG ISLAND, NY - Suffolk County residents will be hitting the polls next week to elect several local representatives.

In addition to local town and village races, residents should look into who will be running to represent one of the 18 legislative districts in Suffolk County. This year, Election Day falls on Tuesday, November 5.

In anticipation of the big day, Patch asked candidates in the contested races to answer questions about their campaigns and will be publishing candidate profiles as election day draws near.

Republican Gary Pollakusky, 43, of Rocky Point, is running for Suffolk County legislator in the Sixth District, which includes Coram, Middle Island, Miller Place, Ridge, Rocky Point, parts of Mount Sinai, Shoreham, Sound Beach and Wading River.

His opponent is Democrat incumbent Sarah Anker.

Pollakusky, who holds a bachelor of science in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University, is a marketing/communications executive and business owner. He's a board member of the Brookhaven IDA/LDC and the founder/president of the Rocky Point Sound Beach Chamber of Commerce.

Check out Patch's full Q&A with Pollakusky below:

Patch: The single most pressing issue facing our community is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

Pollakusky: Taxes. Our seniors, grads and young families are leaving Suffolk County in droves because it’s just too expensive to live here and good-paying jobs that are not government or financed through taxes are hard to find. Voters should look at the elected officials who created this mess and show them the door. We need new voices in government, people who are concerned about the taxpayers and not politics and reelection. I believe I am a new voice we need right now to start the process of digging us out of this fiscal mess.

Here is my plan: First we need to work on expanding the tax base and reducing the residential tax burden by supporting business in Suffolk. As founder and president of the Rocky Point Sound Beach Chamber of Commerce, and as a small businessman myself, I know how difficult government makes it to do business here. In fact, New York is the 49th worst state to do business in and it’s about time we had a champion in the county legislature who focuses on building the tax base through business expansion, rather than burdening homeowners with multi-billion dollar debt and some of the highest taxes in the nation. Instead of taking three years to get permits, it should take only weeks. I will make that happen by working with our builders and building trades to address redundancies in administration, determine acceptable timetables and hold our government accountable to them along with adopting software technology to streamline processing across towns, county and the state.

When is the last time you heard a county official addressing the problem of bureaucracy? My degree in industrial and labor relations along with my practical experience in change management and organizational development give me great ability to address these issues with efficacy. As legislator, I will focus on the needs of our residents and businesses to thrive, rather than government bureaucracy, and in doing so, shift the tax burden off of homeowners.

Here is what I have done: In founding the Chamber of Commerce in Rocky Point and Sound Beach, I created the infrastructure of an amazing organization to be able to serve our businesses and community. We have held a fall festival, spring festival, golf tournament, networking events and are closing in on 100 members, in just a year’s time!

I also want to cut sales tax because I think more money should stay in the pockets of our residents, rather than the bureaucracy inherent in our county. My opponent wouldn’t touch that one with a 10-foot pole. She also took our area off the sewer district list ignoring the fact that proper sanitation is a key ingredient to economic expansion and quality H2O is essential to our health! Let’s not forget that when businesses tie into sewers, the county gets more revenue. I would also advocate to expand sewering by sharing town and county government services and utilizing our union workforce.

And when’s the last time a politician talked about fighting waste, fraud and abuse? With a $900 million operating budget this year, it’s pretty obvious that there’s taxpayer abuse going on across county government.

Patch: What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

Pollakusky: My opponent looks at the position as an employment opportunity for her to make a living. I look at it as a way to help my neighbors and communities afford to live here. My opponent is very good at the political game of making it look like something is getting done, when in fact our county finances are a disaster. I put the issue of making it affordable to live here first and reject all of the feel-good BS you hear from politicians.

My opponent goes along to get along. She rubber stamps the county executive's budgets and sits idly by while the county's financial health sinks further and further into the abyss. I rail against the county's $2 billion debt and what it means to future generations, its junk bond status and all of the gimmicks to continually sap the taxpayers, while my opponent says nothing and pretends everything's rosy so she can keep her job. For once, let's have someone who will lead the charge against the high taxes that are driving people off Long Island in record numbers and focus public attention on the problems and fight for solutions.

Patch: In what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community (or district or constituency)?

Pollakusky: My opponent took our area off the sewer district list which means our water quality won't be helped and this economic engine will not be available to foster growth, meaning the tax base won't be improved and the burden will stay with homeowners. She sat idly by and allowed our county to raid $171.3 million from the sewer stabilization fund to prop up the budget and supports new rules forcing homeowners to install expensive $20,000 septic systems. County spending topped $3 billion under her watch, which is fine for her and the politicians, but horrible for taxpayers.

Suffolk's been named the most fiscally stressed county in all of New York State for the second year straight and Sarah Anker wants us to believe she's doing a good job? Just as bad are her lies about red light cameras reducing accidents when Anker’s own $250,000 study says they actually increase accidents. Sarah knows the cameras are just a money grab by the county, sadly in predominately low-income areas, yet she tells us fairy tales otherwise just so the county can keep our money rolling in.

Patch: Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

Pollakusky: In my opponent’s eight years on the job, she has raised our taxes and fees by over $200 million, brought county spending to over $3 billion, facilitating seven bond downgrades and seven fiscal crises. As a professional politician, my opponent doesn’t understand the first thing about business or creating jobs. Fiscal irresponsibility hurts everyone. Mismanagement by our elected leaders and the county's poor financial health are making Suffolk the most expensive place to live in the country and we are indebting future generations.

I intend to question every dollar being spent and be an advocate for the taxpayer, not the government and my own political career. I will bring a fresh new business-oriented approach to county government and make it easier to develop a commercial economic base instead of sticking the tax burden on homeowners. I will create a more business-friendly climate by forcing county departments to cut the amount of amount of time it takes to permit and foster new businesses and get government off the backs of existing ones. I will fight to reduce fees and taxes and make it easier to keep skilled workers on Long Island by not taxing them to death. I will show businesses and those willing to invest here that we are not a Vampire State by getting rid of the thieving red light cameras and reduce and/or eliminate the myriad of taxes and fees the county executive hiked to pay for his wasteful spending.

Other important issues include integrity and the lengths my opponent to will go to get reelected and hold on to her job. Her personally excluding local businesses from participating in the VFW concert series so she could hog the platform for herself is one example and refusing to get behind a local NARCAN education effort because she was promoting her own is another. She could have used the concerts to create awareness about the opioid crisis and NARCAN trainings being offered, but instead only promoted herself and her radio show, and then we had more outbreaks of opioid deaths and overdoses while her training was scheduled to start months later. Sarah Anker is not straight with voters, particularly about the county's terrible financial health under her watch and the way she puts her own politics ahead of her constituents. She conspired with the political action committee of the county's largest employee union to send out vicious campaign mailings against me, a clear violation of election law. She then is responsible for voting on the contracts for this union, a clear violation of ethics law.

Patch: What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

Pollakusky: I believe I am well-suited to serve as a Suffolk legislator, particularly in this time of fiscal crisis, because of my business background having self-started and self-funded three successful businesses. I have a full-service advertising organization, a nationally syndicated sports talk entertainment network and a travel tours company. My background in service includes founding and leading as president the Rocky Point Sound Beach Chamber of Commerce; I am a Board Member / Asst. Secretary for the Brookhaven Industrial Development Agency & Brookhaven Local Development Corporation in addition to my civic involvement where I am an active Rotarian, Freemason as well as founder and president of the North Shore Community Association. I hold a bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University, was honored with the Long Island Business News Corporate Citizenship Award for my charity work as well as the coveted Forty Under Forty Award.

The time for happy talk and politics as usual is over. My background is in leadership and getting things done and I will be a forceful champion of the taxpayers, not the government or the political class that supports my opponent. I've built businesses and have overcome adversity after my home was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. I know what it's like to pay the bills and meet a bottom line. With the county billions in debt and unable to control spending, I don't think my opponent has learned these lessons.

Patch: The best advice ever shared with me was ...

Pollakusky: The best advice shared with me is to never forget the people who help get you to where you are. In the case of an elected official, that would be the voters, and once elected, I will be beholden to them, not the county executive or the political system that manipulates our government to our detriment. My faith, family, friends and supporters have each played critical roles in my life. Without these strong pillars of support and encouragement, my success would be limited. I have great love and gratitude for everything I have been fortunate enough to have received. With such good fortune, my mission has and always will be to help others and give back.

Patch: What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

Pollakusky: Voters know it's time for a change. Incumbents like my opponent have been in office for too long and have a terrible record to show for it. They will try to sugarcoat it, but the fact is, the government must be revamped or generations yet to come will have to pay a heavy price.

Everybody knows that if re-elected, Steve Bellone and Sarah Anker are going to raise taxes. They've been nickel and diming us on everything else and this is their last option. We need elected leaders to cut taxes, increase revenue by supporting businesses and stand up for the taxpayers, not look at them as a bottomless pit for government money.