Long Island's Economic Future is at Stake

Everywhere I look these days, the call for change is being made loud and clear on Long Island.

“Long Islanders have to make some pretty difficult decisions soon about how we will tax ourselves for the government services we receive. It will take backbone because elected leaders traditionally lead only when they have a public to follow them. So we can’t dawdle, since the region is running out of time. Long Island is aging rapidly, and the next 17 years will bring demographic changes that, if unchecked, will dramatically impact the regional workforce, and possibly the economic sustainability of the regional economy.”

Quote from Martin Cantor, director of the Long Island Economic and Social Policy Institute at Dowling College writing in the Long Island Business News, June 27, 2008.

“Findings confirm that Long Island’s economic engine is no longer turning out the same number of high-paying jobs as it has in previous decades. According to Nancy Rauch Douzinas, President of the Rauch Foundation, “Long Island needs new business to grow. New businesses need workers. Workers need affordable housing options. Economic growth and affordable housing are, by necessity, linked. We are not going to have one without the other.”

Quote from The Long Island Index 2008 report, a project spearheaded by Nancy Douzinas, president of the Rauch Foundation that publishes important economic data on the Long Island region.

The Index further reports “the willingness of Long Islanders to live, work, and shop in downtown locations. Solid majorities support inclusionary housing as well as increased density and more rental apartments in downtown areas.”

New organizations are forming and old ones are re-surging in an effort to get more citizens involved in the fight to reduce property taxes. Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi’s commission has sent its report to Albany recommending a 4% cap on school budget increases in effort to rein in spending. It is not a perfect proposal but it is a start.

We live in our provincial worlds talking amongst ourselves but not enough of us are forming a Island-wide public effort to actually get something done. Most of us are so busy trying to survive our suburban world that several decades have already past without any real changes to the current system making it hard for most Long Islanders to accept that this time the warnings are real.

Martin Cantor wrapped up his article "let’s stop the foolishness and demand real solutions." I agree.