Since the large majority of residents in Long Island are so unhappy with the costs, taxes and problems here, why do they keep voting for the same politicians in the same political parties over and over?

...and the answer is we are talking about the Town of Hempstead, the one shining example of how to run a municipality correctly, with costs in line, taxes modest, and services excellent.

Compare the Town of Hempstead with, say almost any school district in the County, and, of course, with the County government itself, which teeters on the brink of fiscal ruination amidst reduced services.

In a word, for the Town, it is about value received for money spent. Hempstead Township is a good value.

Maybe we should eliminate Nassau County altogether, split the Town of Oyster Bay in half at the LIE, and make the Town of Hempstead and the Town of North Hempstead each a new county, each subsuming their respective halves of Oyster Bay?

Ramona Gillings -is 100% correct about you all. All you all do is complain about them all year long-this and that etc-etc--never ending--and then what?-YOU RE-ELECT THEM ALL INTO OFFICE SO THEY CAN CONTINUE TO RIP YOU OFF AND NOT CARE ABOUT THINGS THAT ARE IMPT TO ALL OF US--JUST THEIR POCKETS---ARE YOU ALL IMBALANCED OR WHAT--PLEASE IN 2012-DONT COMPLAIN ABOUT ANYTHING THEY DO CAUSE IT WILL SHOW YOU ARE IMBALANCED TO ME AND RAMONA

hey donald,
if nassau is such a well run county, then why are is it overseen by NIFA?
you probably work for the county, town or one of the villages- ha.

Thank God the Republicans retained the County and Town. At least those taxes won't go up so I can hold the line on my tenants' rents.

I have a bunch of happy tenants and they don't even know why.

I send them letters each election day that a vote for a Democrat is a vote for a rent increase.

They're learning.

Ok--people. We need to think about this for a second. The reason why the Town taxes don't seem to go up is for three reasons...

1) The Town of Hempstead digs into its reserves and continues to borrow tens of millions of dollars. That can't last forever.
2) Special Taxing Districts, controlled by the Town, such as sanitation districts DO raise their taxes. The Town takes the surplus from these districts. So taxes in effect do go up.
3) Fees have increased both in Nassau and the TOH to cover some costs.

4) Town also deeply cut spending. Forgot that one, eh?

I have to agree with icarumba, and I actually like Queens! Transportation is a major issue on all of Long Island. LIRR as we all know is designed to get people in and out of the city (not around LI), and it doesn't do that very well. A more efficient bus service or "loop" on the LIRR where you could connect North and South Shore towns with those on the existing East-West lines would be a huge improvement, increase revenue for LIRR, and improve the local economy and commuter's quality of life. I'm surprised it wasn't done a long time ago.

I'm puzzled. Has everyone forgotten the TOH Wantagh Animal Shelter debacle this past year? That alone was reason to vote people out of office.

Yes, the Wantagh animal shelter case was appalling. I'm sure there are cases of abuse and corruption in other agencies that have yet to be discovered. As far as reelecting the officials that are unaware of, ignore, or are even part of the corruption, we need to have more real discussions about specific problems and how to solve them, and not just criticize the people in office we happen not to like.

jeremy,
in basically any other area than LI, the "kate machine" would basically be run out of town.

ms anthony,
find me anywhere else in america where there is an animal shelter that not only as multi-million dollar salaries and expenses (when all is added up) but is not even a no-kill shelter.

im VERY surprised that PETA and the other animal rights groups didnt get involved in this sordid mess.

What I find curious is that the DA was asked to investigate the shelter BY the town. Animal abuse was never mentioned. In fact, the only people who made the allegations were individuals banned from it. They said they worked their for 10 years, and never a peep. Suddenly after getting banned the start allegations, something to think about. Also, the Comptroller investigation is only about the $, not abuse.

And Jeremey, that what reserves are for, to use them to help offset raising taxes. But your a big fan of Steve Anchin, guy who ran for clerk. How did that work out. And special districts are NOT controlled by the towns. Since you are in college right now, you should read up on this stuff. And the town can't take surplus from them, thats illegal! Again, you post straight forward lies!

The special taxing districts are reported in the Town budget because they collect the taxes for the districts. They do not touch their collections to offset town taxes if they did they would be violating the law. Considering the TOH is constantly awarded for transparency, I would tread carefully on that charge. However, the animal shelter is a blunder. I think the shelter operations are fine and run decently. The pay is unfair and astronomical, however.

I think it is unfair for any public servant to receive pay above the average for the community it is in. The original reason people went into public service, was despite the low pay they received a guaranteed pension for life and good health benefits. Now it has become guaranteed pay for life, the benefits and high pay. It is an unsustainable system.

Something Kate does not brag about, she is one of the few municipal operations to get employees to contribute to their healthcare. The use of the reserves is fair and standard legal practice to offset taxes and balance a budget. That is the purpose of those funds, not for anything else.

Personally it annoys me that Kate will not spend more than the 40 million dollar parks improvement project, the green energy park, the new Camp ANCHOR, the restored Lido and Point Lookout, the 50 million dollar improvement project. I would prefer more investment in restoring our Town like TOBAY is doing.

icarumba

You keep mixing up your school, village, county and town taxes. Town taxes are low and show what a good job Team Kate is doing.

Terry,
Is that the same DA who is being sued by her co-op board for a flagrant and illegal violation of her agreement for having a pet, when she signed that she would not? And now she says that teh rules about not having a pet , "Does NOT apply to her!" ? That DA who ...might have her name "FRYED" this time around?

doesn't seem like she was informed by the board of the change in policy