Beginning next week, Suffolk County will be pulling police officers off of some of the island?s busiest highways.

The removal of authorities is a response to an incident with the state involving taxes. It started when the state decided to cut taxes to the county. The county responded, saying that if taxes were cut, they would no longer patrol state roads.

After doing nothing for a while, the county has decided to stay true to its word. As of next Thursday, Suffolk County police will be absent from the Long Island Expressway and Sunrise Highway. The 13 officers will be assigned to new locations in what Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy is calling an effort to get the state to do its job.

Levy says that the job to patrol state highways has historically fallen to county police, and that it is something the state should be in charge of. He hopes that by removing officers from the roads, the state will be forced to step in, enforcing the job it should have been doing all along.

Jeff Frayler, the president of the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association, says that the county?s game of hardball with the state will put motorists at risk, saying he would hate to blame Levy if a horrible accident were to occur while there were no troops on the road.

Levy says the state is placing officers in schools instead of on the roads where they belong.

Nassau County has decided to take no part in the event.

Counties negotiate shift to state patrol on LIE, Sunrise