A Month Late, Assemblyman Joins Call For Forensic Audit of MTA. Or So It Seems.

More than a month after Suffolk Legislator and Assembly Candidate Dan Losquadro joined New York State Assembly and legislative Republicans at the Hicksville train station to demand a forensic audit of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and Assemblyman Marc Alessi have at last joined in demanding the MTA be held accountable – or so it seems.

The State Comptroller announced August 30 that he was launching a “Forensic Audit of MTA Overtime Spending,”  though makes no mention of Alessi in the posted news release.  In an undated news release sent by Alessi on September 7, he claims a joint announcement. Clearly, his claim is not accurate and comes eight days after DiNapoli’s news release and more than a month after Legislator Losquadro demanded the troubled transit agency undergo a full and transparent accounting of its financial health. 

And despite Alessi’s assertions in the campaign news release that “I have been calling for this audit for years,”  there are no news releases on his member website going as far back as September 2005 attesting to that fact.

Assembly Candidate and Suffolk County Legislator / Minority Leader Dan Losquadro, Assemblyman Michael Montesano (R,I,C- Glen Head), Dean Murray (R,C-East Patchogue), Assemblyman Andrew Raia (R,I,C-East Northport), Nassau County Legislator Rose Walker; Town of Oyster Bay Councilman Anthony Macagnone; and Lionel Chitty, President of the Hicksville Chamber of Commerce all stood at the Hicksville train station on August 2 to demand the troubled transit agency undergo a full and transparent accounting of its financial health. 

“I am glad The Comptroller and assemblyman have joined with us in calling for an audit of the MTA,” Losquadro said, “even though it is limited to overtime spending. I hope that perhaps in another month, they will join us in the call for a full forensic audit of the agency to determine how our tax dollars are being wasted.” 

Losquadro Southold Campaign Headquarters Sign Stolen, Quickly Recovered by Southold Town Police.

A Dan Losquadro Southold campaign headquarter's sign was stolen during the busy Labor Day weekend, but quickly recovered by Southold Town Police who were alerted to the theft Monday morning.


Southold Town Police Officer Daniel Mackay recovered the 7 ft. x 3 ft. vinyl banner down the road from Losquadro’s Southold headquarters which is located in the law offices of Stephen Kiely at Main Rd. and Love Lane in Mattituck.


The sign was mounted high atop Kiely’s office building and securely affixed more than 10 feet off the ground to the building’s facade. Kiely discounted wind as a factor in the sign’s disappearance. “The sign’s mountings were clearly twisted and tampered with,” Kiely said, “and the theft was clearly aimed at keeping Dan’s name from the view of throngs of visitors during the busy holiday weekend.”

Both Assembly Candidate Dan Losquadro and Kiely were quick to thank the Southold Police Department and fast action by Officer Mackay. “Clearly,” Losquadro said, “this was not the crime of the century. We do, though, appreciate the officer keeping an eye out for, and ultimately locating our sign.”

“I had little hope of the sign being recovered,” Kiely said, “and will now install even sturdier mounts.” Kiely also said he is considering installing some type of video surveillance for the front of the building.

 “I do hope,” Losquadro continued, “that this is not the beginning of silly campaign tactics by my opponent’s staff and volunteers. We have instructed our volunteers that irresponsible behavior such as stealing and defacing signs is off limits and anyone doing so will be dismissed and the instance referred to the proper authorities. I hope my opponent will join me in doing the same,” Losquadro said.

Reforming NY State Government: Pension Reform

By Daniel P. Losquadro


The first in a series of messages from NYS Assembly Candidate and Suffolk County Legislator Daniel P. Losquadro about the path to Reforming New York State Government. 

Many states, New York included, now concede that they have promised their workers pensions they cannot afford and are cutting benefits to soothe angry taxpayers and attempt to close gaping budget shortfalls.

And here in New York, just when we thought we had heard the worst, came the news from the State Comptroller a short time ago that he is lowering the assumed rate of return for the state pension system. This bad news came just after the state announced and adopted a plan to borrow from the state pension fund to make constitutionally required payments to the same fund — with interest.

And just this year, - despite months of wrangling about how to close a black hole of a budget deficit -- there were, according to The New York Times, 50 bills before New York’s legislature that would add to pension benefits.

You can’t make this stuff up.

There is one sad truth in all of this: we all end up paying more. Local governments will have pay dearly to make up the shortfalls suffered by the pension system and that means, you guessed it, higher taxes.

Thank you, Albany.

How do we move forward without depriving retirees and existing employees of benefits they have already earned?

New York must immediately fix its pension laws to enable public employers to implement lower-cost benefits for new employees. We must also immediately eliminate the loopholes that inflate employee’s wages used to determine benefits.

I know you’ve read and heard about New York State enacting pension reform in the past. Late last year’s headlines proclaimed “landmark reforms” that will “save billions.” The problem? These new “reforms only created yet another non-sustainable ‘tier’ in our already crippled system. Worse yet, the state will now be taxing the contribution of those very employees whose system they purported to reform.”

As a Suffolk County Legislator, I represent thousands of single parents and families who work two jobs -- assuming they still have jobs -- to earn barely enough to save for retirement, if at all.

Those same parents and families would happily agree that a hardworking police officer deserves every dime of his or her pension for risking life and limb; or a teacher, or state or county worker for that matter who has put in their time, worked hard and wishes to retire. But, the relevant question isn't whether anyone deserves that benefit, but whether we can afford it.

We can start to fix this problem now by making smart reforms and implementing retirement benefit packages similar to those used by the private sector for more than two decades. We should also be tapping the private sector expertise to help develop a new program and new rules – rules that are fair to workers and to taxpayers.

In New York we must:

• create a pension plan for new public employees similar to a 401K plan
• eliminate the use of overtime and vacation time for calculating a public employees’ pensions 
• eliminate waivers that allow retired public pensioners to sidestep the state law that caps any additional state salary at $30,000 when one is already receiving a state pension. 

How are other states battling the crisis?

A bold solution was introduced in Utah by Republican State Senator Dan Lijenquist and signed into law in March of this year.

The Utah reform changes the pension system for public employees to a fixed defined state contribution. A fixed contribution means the state no longer has to raise or lower contributions to the fund in response to market fluctuations. The state contribution is fixed each year at 10% of the employees’ salary whether fund investments are doing well or poorly. If the investments take a dive and earn too little to sustain the guaranteed benefits, the state is not obligated to pay more that the fixed 10% and the employee would have to make up the difference out of his or her salary. If the investments do well, the state still invests the 10% annually and if there is anything over and above the amount needed to meet guaranteed benefits, the worker gets to invest the difference in a personal 401(k) according to parameters set by the state retirement system. Workers are not permitted to borrow from or against the 401(k). Workers can also opt out of the system and have the state forward its contribution to the employees 401(k).

While this might not be the solution to New York’s problem, an innovative plan like this is worth considering and demonstrates that with cooperation and independent thinking reforms can be achieved.

Share your thoughts: danforassembly@danlosquadro.com


NY Post Article
ALBANY – Even while telling New Yorkers to pony up $1.3 billion more next year to cover soaring pension costs, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli is advertising on his official Website how government workers can game the system.