“Long Island, The Global Economy and Race: The Aging of America’s First Suburb”..was the topic of this morning’s speaker, Marty Cantor. Marty is a CPA and a former economic development officer in Suffolk County in the Patrick Halpin administration.

 

It sounds like a very broad subject and I can assure you it is. Mr.. Cantor started with a discussion of the minority communities of Long Island. He stated that they are not able to access the global markets. The reasons, according to Cantor, have a lot to do with the entrepreneurial capabilities and education levels of the minority communities of Long Island. While these factors weigh heavily on the African American communities, it does not have the same profound affect on the Caribbean populations, nor are those factors pronounced among Koreans and other Asian groups.  

Marty’s presentation was more an overview of problems as he sees them, rather than an approach to solving them.

 

Assimilation of the various legal immigrant groups is important and it is ongoing. We should not resist this, according to Cantor, we should embrace it. Mr. Cantor moved onto the subject of the economy, which is related to the other topics he covered.

 

Cantor suggested that we are not going to make the commitment to wages and that, will prevent the businesses from retaining the high skilled workers that they will need more and more.

 

Property taxes are way out of line. We are paying a “regressive” real estate tax. That tax is onerous and should be lowered at the same time an income tax could make up the difference. He admitted that this would be a hard sell.

 

These compounding problems “will cause the Long island economy to contract”

PIctured: Martin Cantor, Bob McMillan, Ernie Fazio