Before her public service, Laura Curran built a long and successful career as a reporter. She worked for the New York Daily News and the New York Post, crafting in-depth features covering education, politics and crime. She shared her love of journalism with the next generation, teaching courses at SUNY Purchase as an adjunct professor.
Laura began her political life as a Baldwin school board member.
From there, she successfully ran for Nassau County legislator. In her time in the County Legislature, a Republican-majority body, Laura made a reputation as a consensus-builder; working across the aisle and transcending partisan divides. In the legislature, Laura shepherded bipartisan bills to improve Nassau’s quality of life.
Through her years of political journalism and experience in the Nassau County legislature, Laura learned how both bureaucracy and corruption mired Nassau County’s progress. In 2016, when the incumbent County Executive was charged with fraud and bribery, Laura said, “enough.”
Laura ran for County Executive that year, determined to reform a system that worked well only for the well-connected. She campaigned on the promise to make Nassau taxpayer dollars actually work for Nassau taxpayers. And in 2017, she was elected to the role of County Executive to put that promise into action.
Three most important issues in my campaign for re-election are as follows:
- Continuing to invest in public safety:
Under my leadership, Nassau County has now been ranked the safest community by U.S. News and World Report – twice. This distinction reflects my commitment to investing in our police and public safety personnel.
Since taking office, I’ve invested hundreds of millions of dollars in our police department, including $54 million in the construction of a new, state-of-the-art police training and intelligence center.
In my first term, we tripled the size of Nassau PD’s Communities Affairs Unit, re-opened two police precincts, and quadrupled the amount of problem-oriented police officers in every precinct. Under my leadership, Nassau PD adopted its first body worn camera program.
In my second term, I commit to keeping Nassau the safest community in the United States. I have a plan to invest $45 million in new spending and increase the police department’s sworn headcount for the first time since 2009 while adding new diversity recruitment and training efforts, and prioritizing initiatives directed at keeping crime at record lows.
In addition to funding resources for law enforcement, I will bolster resources to combat the opioid epidemic and support the county’s mental health response efforts. We will expand post-COVID Health and Human Service programs such as veterans support, behavioral health, youth services and senior services. We will partner with healthcare networks to establish a mental health walk-in clinic; offering a cost-effective alternative to emergency room care. We
will enhance collaboration between the police department and the Nassau County Mobile Crisis Team, increase mental health call intake training to 911 operators, and implement a two-tier system to further improve mental health response.
2. Supporting small businesses and downtowns:
I will always remember the moment I got word that we had our first confirmed case of COVID in Nassau. From that day on, I met daily with community leaders and health officials to keep residents healthy and informed. I visited small businesses to keep a finger on the pulse of our local economy. I advocated for safe reopenings when it made sense to support our long-term economic health.
As we recover, my administration is working hand-in-hand with small business owners to get $10,000 in individual grants to those that need them.
County mobile vaccination teams are visiting businesses directly and providing vaccinations to staff. Paramedics are taking vaccines to the homebound. Nassau County is moving forward with my proposal to provide $100 million in American Rescue Plan funds to some 400,000 households as $375 direct cash payments.
That money will help parents buy school supplies, help a family cover utility bills and it will stimulate our small businesses and downtowns as we continue to come back stronger.
We will invest in transit-oriented development and walkable downtowns that attract young people and make life in Nassau better — boosting revenue for small businesses, and ensuring residents and tourists alike have plenty of reasons to spend their money right here in Nassau.
To support this mission, we are constructing dynamic centers of entertainment and commerce. The new UBS Belmont arena will not only keep the Islanders in Nassau but create thousands of local jobs and a new Long Island Rail Road station, which will ease congestion and provide a new, green public transit option.
3. Building tomorrow’s Nassau:
Infrastructure has been a priority of my first term and will continue to be in my second. We will answer the challenges of climate change by seizing the opportunities of a greener economy. That includes supporting offshore wind power projects that seek to power six million homes by 2035, and provide high-skilled, high-paying green, union jobs to promote a clean energy economy on Long Island.
In my next term, we will finish the largest environmental infrastructure project in our lifetime: the Bay Park Conveyance project, which will bring back shellfish, improve water quality for fishing, swimming and other recreational activities – and most importantly, restore Nassau’s precious marshland to help protect our coastal communities against storm surge.
The Bay Park Conveyance project will also create some 2,290 jobs and contribute more than 750 million dollars in economic output for Nassau’s local economy. Here on Long Island, sustainability also means jobs.
Whether cleaning up government or combatting COVID, I’ve tackled tough fights head on. Now, my administration is seeing Nassau through the pandemic by leading on transformative projects to protect our environment, save taxpayer money, and create new union jobs in sustainable industries. In this next chapter, I will pursue a plan to create an estimated $1.3 billion in economic output by completing 13 proposed infrastructure projects outlined for federal stimulus funds.
Qualifications
My record of results sets me apart from other candidates. When I ran for County Executive, I promised to return Nassau government to the people by tackling corruption and fiscal mismanagement. I delivered on those promises, implementing historic reforms and achieving Nassau’s first positive bond rating in more than a decade. After turning chronic deficits into surpluses, county government is actually in a position to responsibly cut property taxes. I have a proposal to provide a $150 million property tax cut to Nassau residents across the next four years.
My leadership has secured real, tangible results for Nassau County. We are now the number one vaccinated county in the state, and second-highest vaccinated in the country among large counties. U.S. News and World Report has ranked us the safest community in America for two consecutive years. I put real investments behind my stated priorities, and the data proves it.
I have the experience and the political courage to take on tough fights and make life better for all Nassau residents. I will continue to do this in my next term by maintaining fiscal discipline, continuing to invest in public safety, supporting our small businesses and downtowns and building tomorrow’s Nassau through sustainable infrastructure projects.
