YORKTOWN -- A suburban New York highway superintendent is refusing a $25,000 pay increase.

Says Yorktown Highway Superintendent Eric DiBartolo: "In my heart I can't turn around — in this day and age, when people are getting laid off and tuitions are going up and everything that's going on — I can't take a raise.

"...I just can't do it."

The rejected windfall included a $21,000 bonus offered because DiBartolo saved the town at least $600,000 through cost-cutting measures. He makes $125,000 a year.

Supervisor Don Peters, Town Clerk Alice Roker and all four Town Board members also will forgo raises, saving another $8,000.