John Kennedy, candidate for Suffolk County Executive, says current County Executive Steve Bellone is trying to illegally strip both the County Comptroller and the County Legislature of their powers to oversee the county’s finances in an attempt to hide the fact that the county is facing a severe fiscal crisis. He is clearly attempting to hide the county’s finances from elected officials, Suffolk taxpayers and bond investors.
Mr. Bellone is looking to take away the county Legislature’s financial oversight powers — a violation of New York State Municipal Law. In addition, Mr. Bellone wants to create a Central Purchasing Department that would review the county’s policies and procedures every year — the same job that is currently being performed by the county Legislature.
Bellone’s proposal would further reduce the Comptroller’s powers to implement checks and balances, which are used to keep watch of Suffolk taxpayers’ money. This proposal would drastically reduce the Comptroller’s ability to review county finances to every four years instead of every year. Not surprisingly, Mr. Kennedy currently holds the position of Comptroller.
“Only a professional politician like #BigTaxBellone would have the nerve to pay thousands of dollars to buy a vanity line called ‘Protect The Taxpayers’ for this year’s election, while, at the same time, work behind the scenes to try to eliminate the fiscal oversight that’s in place to actually ‘Protect The Taxpayers’ of Suffolk County,” said Dean Murray, Campaign Manager.
