TEXT RESIZE -AA+A About Tom In 2001, when Nassau County voters elected Tom Suozzi to take over from Republican County Executive Tom Gulotta, Nassauâs government was in dire straits: debt, deficits, patronage, mismanagement, finances one step above junk bond status, and a control board in place to control the finances. Nassau was labeled the worst run county in America. Tom Suozzi ran for County Executive to bring real leadership to Nassau County and fix its financesâand he showed he was up to the challenge. âThe man who spearheaded Nassauâs remarkable turnaround from the brink of financial disaster.â Governing Magazine 2005 In his tenure as Nassauâs chief executive, Tom turned the countyâs finances around. Under Tomâs watch Nassau experienced thirteen-straight credit rating upgrades (more than any other American state, county, town, or municipality in the same period), eight straight balanced budgets with eight verified surpluses, spending kept below the rate of inflation every year, and an 11% cut in the county workforce (over 1,000 jobs) without a single layoff. Tom Suozzi also innovated and modernized Nassau County government. He updated decades-old equipment and facility of the countyâs data systems, identified seventy-six storerooms throughout the county and surplused the obsolete equipment, reserved and renovated the Executive and Legislative Building, reduced County take home vehicles, created a central IT department, saved one billion dollars on smart government initiatives, signed a prevailing wage bill into law, and created lasting, affordable labor contracts. Next, Tom targeted property taxes. In 2004 Tom founded FixAlbany, a statewide campaign to link the dysfunction of NYS government to local property taxes. In Nassau he reduced the County share of total household tax obligation from 22.7% to 16.4%âmaking it more affordable for Nassau families to live here. In 2008, Governors Spitzer and Patterson appointed Tom to serve as Chairman of the NYS Commission on Property Tax Relief, and Tom was the original proponent of New York Stateâs property tax cap that Governor Cuomo recently signed into law. Nassau was finally on the right trackâand even people outside of Nassau started noticing. â[Tom Suozzi] is the prime reformer for cutting taxes and putting the county economy on solid footing.â New York Times 2009 In 2008, Governing Magazine named Tom National Public Official of the year, and the American Association of Public Administrators awarded him the Distinguished Public Service Award. Tom received NYUâs 2006 Rudin Center for Transportation Policy Outstanding Achievement Award from his time serving as Chairman of the NY Metropolitan Transit Council, where he helped develop the first comprehensive downstate transportation plan. In 2008, the New York State League of Conservation Voters named Tom their âEnvironmentalist of the year.â But Tom didnât stop there. âTom Suozzi is still unchallenged in his ability to articulate a vision for the new suburbia.â Newsday 2008 Tom presented a vision for Nassauâs future: downtown revitalization, smart growth development, and green initiatives would transform Nassau into the ideal suburb for us and for the next generation. Tom Suozzi was never satisfied with âhow have we done this in the past;â he has always strived to make Nassau better for the future. Tom is now running for Nassau County Executive because he knows Nassau families cannot afford another four years of reckless borrowing, bond downgrades, and a broken assessment system that is costing the County millions. Tom is the leader we need to turn Nassau around and provide a vision for the future. âThis isnât about politics. Itâs about what kind of community we want to be. And whether weâre willing to do the hard work that has to be done to make Nassau County a place our children can continue to call home.â â Tom Suozzi Tom currently serves of counsel at Harris Beach law firm, a New York state-based firm ranked one of the countryâs Top 200 law firms by National Law Journal. He received a Juris Doctor from Fordham University School of Law and a BS from Boston College, School of Management. After graduating, Tom worked as an auditor at Arthur Andersen & Co., as a law clerk to Chief Judge Thomas C. Platt of the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of New York and as an attorney at Shearman & Sterling. Tom Suozzi was first elected to public office as the Mayor of the City of Glen Clove in 1993. He served until 2001, when he was first elected as Nassau County Executive. Tom served as Nassau County Executive from 2002-2010. Tom lives in Glen Cove, with his wife Helene and their three children: Caroline, Joseph, and Michael. Printer-Friendly VersionSend By EmailPDF Version
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 06:37:37 +0000
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