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Bio
Rebecca Sanin is a passionate and results-driven leader dedicated to making a meaningful local impact. As a Suffolk County Legislator representing the 16th District, she works tirelessly to address the issues that matter most to Long Island families—ensuring equitable opportunities, strengthening the local economy, and tackling the region's most pressing challenges. A lifelong resident of Long Island, Rebecca brings a deep-rooted understanding of local concerns to her work in the Legislature. Since taking office in January 2024, she has quickly become an active voice for her district, building strong relationships with community organizations, businesses, and non-profits. Serving on five legislative committees, Rebecca advocates for environmental protection, supporting our first responders, providing vital assistance to seniors, prioritizing the health and well-being of residents, and enhancing overall quality of life in Suffolk County.
Experience
Rebecca's leadership in her first term led to her election as the Democratic whip within the minority caucus. Prior to serving in the Legislature, her executive experience includes serving as the CEO of a vital regional Long Island nonprofit organization for 6 1/2 years where she led the sector through the COVID-19 regional response. Prior, she served for 5 1/2 years as an Assistant Deputy County Executive in Suffolk County playing a pivotal role during Superstorm Sandy. Rebecca has focused her career and community life on public service. Her extensive executive leadership and experience and deep love of community have advanced a very successful first term in office serving and delivering solutions for residents and small businesses.
The lack of affordable housing is a major challenge in our district and has a huge impact on staffing our essential businesses like our hospital, the safety and longevity of our seniors in the communities they love and the opportunities for young people to live in the communities in which they were raised. I created legislation to set aside a percentage of affordable housing for EMS & firefighters because recruitment and retention has plummeted due largely to cost of living--and we need a volunteer force as a paid force would be cost prohibitive. We need to look at increasing first time home buyer incentives, reducing mortgage recording taxes, and developing a more diverse housing stock that meets the needs of our residents across the trajectory of their lifespans. I'm proud to be endorsed by the Long Island Board of Realtors and so many labor unions that I work with on addressing the challenges of working families. We also have to look at affordability generally--in a region with many taxing districts and duplicative services, we need to look at meaningful efficiencies to reduce costs and make Long Island more affordable.
As a strong leader in the EPA committee, I advocated for "Skip the stuff" that would require residents to opt-in for plastics when ordering from restaurants or applications like uber eats. We need more sewer infrastructure. We need stricter laws to regulate the chemicals being used to treat lawns and better recycling programs. Aside from policies, we need stronger public education on the impact of human behaviors and land use on our sole aquifer and easy to understand steps that our neighbors can take to protect our environment--especially when federal cuts and rollbacks at the EPA deeply threaten our regional safety and disaster vulnerability. I am proud to be endorsed by the Sierra Club and NY Conservation League of Voters.
Communication with my residents has been a key priority since day #1 in office. Outreach works when we stop expecting our neighbors to come to us--that is why I am everywhere in the community--at events large and small, meeting with all stakeholders from faith-based institutions to fire houses, civic groups, school districts, business improvement districts and so much more. I work with all of our schools, teaching classes on public service and attending events to meet with parents and PTA members. I host regular roundtables with various stakeholder groups in the district to get deeper into issues and build solutions collaboratively. I welcome a large number of interns and learn about the issues of most importance to our young residents. Additionally, I continually communicate from my office digitally in various forms, sharing information on events in English and Spanish and building events that bring the community together--at no cost--so that the bonds between my office and the community are strong and we are building better, more resilient neighborhoods across our district.
The federal cuts that have already begun are cataclysmic. I have been in regular touch with the schools and nonprofit organizations that serve our district to understand their challenges and partner to provide support--as they are vital to my residents. The cuts to Medicaid will be devastating to our seniors and our nursing homes, to those facing substance abuse and mental health challenges and to our veterans, children and families in need of basic health care. The County needs to prioritize its spending around three categories: public safety, public health and social services. As elected officials, we need to advocate vociferously to our federal representatives explaining what we are seeing in our communities and what the impact of their voting looks like. Local government is the last line of defense, and we will need--as a constituent response effort--to build strong, creative relationships to try to fill in gaps as we see the deepening crisis of cuts to healthcare, veterans care, food insecurity programs, environmental safeguards and more. I am also speaking to leaders in philanthropy to ensure they understand what is happening and where their support will be critical.
One critical issue facing my neighbors is affordability. I bring solutions to our small businesses that are hurting, bring resources to our seniors to reduce their utility costs and the costs of heating and cooling their homes, provide direct relief for job seekers, built the first Suffolk County pre-apprentice program at one of our high schools to help young people access union-jobs and I am looking at ways for the County to cut costs for our neighbors. I am endorsed by the Long Island Federation of Labor and most of the labor unions that represent working families in Suffolk County. A second major issue facing our neighbors is public safety. I am continually working with our precincts on issues such as traffic safety, speaker car meet ups, I've worked on capital projects to address road safety, worked with residents to identify areas where ATV's are causing danger, secured a needed security system for the Brentwood 9th grade center and I recently brought a national program to the Huntington School District to strengthen law enforcement school district partnership to better child outcomes. I am proudly endorsed by all of the law enforcement agencies in Suffolk County.
