STONY BROOK - Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy outlined how Suffolk weathered the economic storm of 2009, demonstrated how county services have been maintained and enhanced while controlling costs and detailed new initiatives to combating heroin and gangs, and to spur economic development in his seventh annual State of the County Address Wednesday evening.

Levy said that preparation, enhanced efficiency and streamlined operations over the past several years put Suffolk County in a better position than most municipalities to deal with the national recession – and allowed the county to avoid layoffs or cuts in services in 2009 and for him to propose a 2010 executive budget with a tax freeze.

“For we did not weather the economic crisis of 2009 just in 2009. We prepared for the oncoming storm in 2008, and 2007, and in the years before that by shaping a leaner, more efficient county government,” Levy told an overflow crowd of nearly 300 at the Charles B. Wang Center at Stony Brook University, his alma mater.

With a still-uncertain national economy, the county executive has ordered all departments to place up to 10 percent of planned expenditures into reserve accounts.

Levy unveiled several new initiatives in economic development, health care, public safety and smart government.