This morning, at Borellis on hempstead turnpike there was another rally for the referendum which saw around 100 or so people pack the parking lot of Borellis in support of a new Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum as well as the construction of a minor league ball park. At this one there were a lot more islander representation then the one 2 weeks ago, more fans as well as Islanders employees including ice girls Christie, Danielle, & a third that I don't know.
After this we all made our way to the legislature for the 1 o'clock meeting. Around 80 or so people showed up to the legislature. The meeting started with legislators Dave Denenberg and Wayne Wink proposing amendments which after some dialogue were voted down. Mr. Wink wanted to move the date of the election to election day in order to save costs, he wants a separate RFP done for development on the rest of the land and lastly he wanted the RFP as well as contractual info done by 7/1 if the vote was to be held on 8/1. Dave Denenberg wanted to move things to primary day again to save costs and he thought this would be better then election day because your saving time. However your still using time the labor people don't have. They are losing their homes and struggling to feed their families. Although a month or so may not seem like a lot to the legislatures its a huge difference for the workers and they didn't seem to understand that. Before voting on this the democrats took a caucus which means they temporarily left chambers to discuss the matter and presumably decide how they would vote. After about a 10 minute stoppage the democrats made their way back in and legislator Abrahams was the first to address the crowd and he voted no and that was met with boos and the subsequent Democrats also voted no which was met with boos from the crowd. They said they didn't have enough information to cast a yes vote. The only democrat to vote yes was Dave Denenberg. This ended up passing 11-7, so the vote will in fact be held on August 1st.
It was a tad bit disheartening for me seeing the democrats vote no, although not surprising. It seems as though them and the republicans have traded spots so to speak. With regard to the Lighthouse republicans had issues up the wazoo and democrats were all for it, now Manganos plan a republican and republicans are all for it however Democrats have reservations. Although some of their reservations maybe warranted especially ones stating that we don't have a lot of info, I think that they took that position because its a republican proposed project. If Tom Suozzi or another democrat had proposed this then I feel as though they would've been 100% supportive however since a republican proposed it they have reservations. I wish for once that they would stop worrying about politics and their party and start worrying about us the people who put them there!!
Following the vote County Executive Ed Mangano had a signing ceremony upstairs to make the vote official so to speak. After doing so came a brief time of questions then a photo op.
Now, whats next is, on August 1st all Nassau County voters need to get to the polls and vote to put the referendum through. Assuming it gets voted up then we will need to get a green light from NIFA as well as have the legislature approve the bonding. That won't be to easy since with that you need a super-majority of the legislature and not a majority like was needed today. In that vote 13 yes votes are needed. If Mr. Denenbergs vote is any indication then with the return of the one republican legislature who wasn't in today we'd need one of the democratic legislatures to switch party lines to get this thing done. Assuming that happens according to reports construction on a new Coliseum will start next June.
It will be a wild next couple months in Uniondale!! You can bet on that!!
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