Bellone: No 2014 Funding Requests For 3 Area Projects

Suffolk Executive Steve Bellone says there were no cuts to three area projects in the proposed 2014 Capital Budget, funding was simply never requested.

Bellone said claims made by Legis. John Kennedy Jr., R-Nesconset, that a proposed 27 percent cut to Suffolk’s  Capital Budget, bringing it down to $130 million fgor 2014, is nothing but “incendiary rhetoric” that fails to take the facts into account.

“The Capital Program was cut by 27% as compared to the 2013 Capital Budget because of Suffolk County's fiscal condition and Smithtown residents understand the need for that kind of fiscal responsibility. This is a continued effort on the part of Legislator Kennedy to lower the level of discourse and we will not follow his lead, but will continue to show the kind of fiscal restraint Smithtown residents appreciate,” Bellone said in written statement.

Kennedy claimed 3 Smithtown area projects could be gutted if Bellone’s proposed 2014 Capital Budget is approved: flood remediation of the Nissequogue River corridor, the Smithtown Boulevard traffic improvements in Nesconset and historic home renovations in Blydenburgh County Park.

Vanessa Baird-Streeter, spokeswoman for Bellone, said neither the legislator or Suffolk County Department of Public Works requested any funding for flood remediation efforts along the Nissequogue River in 2014. Despite being a multi-year joint project between the county, Town of Smithtown and Village of the Branch, a responsible party must file a request for funding each year otherwise funding is not set aside.

Baird-Streeter said the Suffolk legislature’s lack of action is also part of the reason there is no funding set aside for the Smithtown Boulevard traffic improvements in 2014. The county set aside $200,000 for the project in 2013 that has yet to be appropriated to the project by the legislature.

“There’s been no resolution to appropriate the funding for the project. Since the resolution didn’t come forward, it’s listed as a discontinued project,” Baird-Streeter said.

Third, Bellone claims he had no plans to set aside money for renovations of the historic Grist Mill and Miller’s Home in Blydenburgh County Park until 2015. The county’s Approved 2013 Capital Budget show a promise of $500,000 to be set aside next year, but no funds in 2013 or 2014.

“When the 2015 budget comes around, that one can be addressed,” Baird-Streeter said. “With all of the projects we looked at, the county is under fiscal constraints. We all have to be aware of that.”

The county executive’s office stressed the 2014 Proposed Capital Budget is only a proposed budget, and changes are likely to be made for it is adopted.