AN OPEN LETTER TO A HOUSE DIVIDED

An Open Letter to a House Divided


Andrew Malekoff © October 2012
To the Nassau County Legislature and County Executive: I attended every Nassau County legislative meeting since May 2012 when funding cuts to human services were first addressed. I testified at four of the meetings. I presented illustrations of troubled children and working families and asked what the County’s backup plan was to help them after $7.3 million of tax-free, dedicated red-light camera revenues were shifted to the general fund. You offered no answers.

I provided facts and figures about the astronomical cost for incarceration in the Nassau County Correctional Facility and compared it to the relatively modest cost of preventive community-based services. I asked you where the money would come from if more kids are incarcerated or institutionalized as a result of depleted services. You offered no answers.

More than testifying, though, I listened and watched you interacting with one another and the public. To your credit, although you routinely pointed fingers at one another across the aisle, not one of you questioned the value of the services that have been held hostage for almost four months since the red-light camera funds were rescinded. If your sense of duty forbids these devastating cuts to human services, to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, then I ask you to stand by your duty, fearlessly and effectively.

In his Cooper Union address, Lincoln famously declared that, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." We know that he was referring to a troubled nation. And, although what is at stake today is vastly different than what was at stake in 1860, what is unmistakable to me, after attending the legislative meetings, is that Nassau County is a house divided against itself. And what was true 150 years ago is still true today: a house divided against itself cannot stand.

I was invited, as a guest, to a meeting of the Federalist Society in September. Although I am not a member, I was very interested in what the guest speaker, NIFA Director George Marlin, had to say. I was hopeful that his remarks might shed additional light on Nassau County’s draconian cuts to vital human services. I did not expect Mr. Marlin to be sympathetic to youth services, for example, but I thought he might help me to better understand the fiscal context and what it would take for positive change to occur.

I was left with a distinct impression that Mr. Marlin, who described himself as a “street-corner conservative,” was not pleased with the fiscal trajectory of Nassau County. Yet, referring to New York State’s challenges, he lauded Governor Andrew Cuomo’s leadership and ability to find common ground, to work capably with members of both sides of the aisle and to effectively negotiate differences in balancing the state budget.

What a novel idea, I thought: cooperation, negotiation and integrated solutions. I implore you, our Nassau County elected representatives and County Executive, to provide leadership by finding ways to work together for the benefit of all of the people of Nassau County; and, in the process, to find a way to restore the tax-free essential human services funding; and, to do it soon.