New feature added to Schmitt Watch

We've added a comments feature at the end of the posts.

NEWSFLASH! Schmitt honored by local Republican club!

In what must have come as a huge suprise, Massapequa republicans recently honored Schmitt and gave him a pretty little plaque. Why was he honored you might ask? Well he was honored for his "watchdog approach to county government." Now what kind of a "watchdog" tries to give himself a 90% pay raise? What kind of "watchdog" signs off on a new health insurance administrator for the county without reading the agreement? The BPA scam that cost Nassau $70million in one year and Schmitt chalked it up to a big "oops." Maybe he was being a "watchdog" when he signed off on Gulotta's one-shot budget deals that sank the county finances. Hey maybe he's a "watchdog" driving around in a county car (the only legislator to have one.)
When it comes down to it, Schmitt is the blind, three-legged kind of "watchdog."


"At a recent cocktail reception, Peter Schmitt, Legislator of the 12th legislative district and the Minority Leader of the Nassau County Legislature was honored for his "watchdog" approach to County government. Pictured, left to right, are Assemblyman Joseph Saladino, Massapequa Park Republican Club President Leonard Antonelli, Peter Schmitt and Massapequa Park Republican Executive Committeeman Bruce Foley."

Your Tax Dollars at Work

The republican legislative spokesperson Ed Ward who makes $80,000 per year for a part-time job is back to his cut and paste press releases again.
See what Legislator Nicollelo had printed in the September 3rd Floral Park Dispatch "The prevalence of tanning salons and parlors in Nassau County makes this legislation all the more important. The public must be made aware that this activity is not a safe alternative to the sun's harmful rays," Nicolello said."
And what does Schmitt say in his press release? The same exact thing! "The prevalence of tanning salons and parlors in Nassau County makes this legislation all the more important. The public must be made aware that this activity is not a safe alternative to the sun's harmful rays," said Legislator Schmitt."
And here is Legislator Dunne on the same issue; "The prevalence of tanning salons and parlors in Nassau County makes this legislation all the more important. The public must be made aware that this activity is not a safe alternative to the sun's harmful rays," said Legislator Dunne."

Why is Ed Ward getting paid $80,000 for this?

You can't make this stuff up

So with the pay raises on hold for the time-being we have the news of Suozzi's 2005 budget. On the face it looks pretty good with a few fee increases. There are no tax increases included so us taxpayers can breath a sigh of relief. Everybody should be happy.
Everybody except the resident contrarian Peter Schmitt.
What does Pete think of the new budget? He tells Newsday, ABC Ch. 7, News12 and anyone who will listen "How can he say happy days are here again and the fiscal crisis is over ... and know full well there's going to be property tax increases?"
So Pete, are you going to vote for new property tax increases? Why do you think they are inevitable? Oh yeah, the 90% pay raise you want has to come from somewhere.
Ed Ward the $80,000/year part-time spokesperson for Schmitt adds in the NYTimes "The fiscal crisis is not nearly as over as he would like,"
Of course it isn't fully over yet as Suozzi said "The phony budgets and one-shot revenues - that crisis is behind us," BUT "The problem Nassau County faces now is the problem facing all of the counties of New York. Revenues are not growing but expenses are growing ... When you look at the long term, the only choices are raise new revenues or cut programs."


This all comes back to the raises for us. Schmitt wants his 90% raise and says Nassau is still having problems. The sad thing is he doesn't seem to make a connection.

Schmitt tells the NYTimes "The county is flush right now....We ought to give some of this back to the taxpayers." Yeah Pete and maybe just a little off the top for you to a tune of $30,000 more a year in you paycheck.

Schmitt doesn't get it

We know that Schmitt was a major cog in the machine that drove Nassau over the cliff financially. We know that under his "leadership" the county was bilked out of $70million in a health insurance scam.
So we know Schmitts track record on fiscal matters and the basic understanding of budgets is kinda poor. Schmitt said in the NYTimes about the new Suozzi budget "The county is flush right now.... We ought to give some of this back to the taxpayers."
Now lets start with the word "flush." What does Schmitt mean by the county being flush? Does he define flush as and adjective "1.Having an abundant supply of money; affluent. 2.Marked by abundance; plentiful"? Because that would mean his statement about the budget "How can he say happy days are here again and the fiscal crisis is over ... and know full well there's going to be property tax increases?" is wrong. Is Schmitt saying the county has lots of money or not?
Schmitt could be defining "flush" as an adverb "1. So as to be even, in one plane, or aligned with a margin. 2.Squarely or solidly" This would mean the county is just breaking even after all these years. And if we are just breaking even then giving money "back" would mean we are no longer breaking even but in a deficit. Does Schmitt recommend a deficit? Back to the good 'ole Gulotta days for Nassau County?
Maybe Schmitt is defining "flush" as a transitive verb "1.To clean, rinse, or empty with a rapid flow of a liquid, especially water, 2.To remove or eliminate by or as if by flushing." In other words Schmitt thinks Nassau is headed down the toilet and he wants to throw money at taxpayers to hasten the decline.

What is Schmitt trying to say and what does he mean? Only the little voice in his head knows for sure.

Raises? What raises?

Monday came and went without the legislature voting on their own pay raise. We would assume that there were enough angry constituent phone calls to make the leaders reconsider the vote.

Show me the Money

So Pete wants a raise. But to be fair, so does Judy Jacobs. But to be completely fair, Schmitt was the one complaining about raises that Suozzi gave to his deputies last year.
Legislator Dave Mejias was honest and a legislator who knows what his job is about when he told Newsday "You don't decide to become a public servant based on the pay...... Fighting for the people in my district is the pay that I get. That's why I took this job."
A 90% increase is not acceptable at all. And that is what Schmitt wants.
Maybe there is a story behind the story.... oh yeah, because the legistature is a part-time job, other legislators have real full-time jobs. A couple are retired but as far as we can tell Schmitt is the only won who hasn't worked a real full-time job.... at all. So we can see that with the legislature being his only source of income he'd want to get a huge raise.

Pete wants a raise

Looks like Pete wants to be rewarded for all the hard work he puts in for his part-time job in the legislature.
He wants a 89.9% raise. No, We didn't type that wrong. It's not 8%. Not 9%. Not 8.9%. 89.9%. Just a touch under 90%. Pete would add over $25,000 to his current salary of $63,000. Pete is looking for $90,000/year for a part-time job. That's better than most Long Islanders make full-time with over-time. Heck, most LIer's don't make full-time what Pete makes part-time right now. Pete sez that there hasn't been a raise since 1988 so he's entitled to the increase. Plus Suffolk County Legislators make $75,000 to start. Pete wants to make it fair.
Now let's hop into the Way-Back Machine and see what Pete had to say about Suozzi when Suozzi was going to give his deputies 15-25% raises last year to bring them up to salaries Suffolk and Westchester Deputies make:
"These people are getting raises in excess of what anyone gets in the private industry. It’s a disgrace."

So Pete, is 89.9% a disgrace or is lining your own pocket an excuse for more hypocricy from you?