Nassau May Have to Continue Borrowing to Fund Budget

The good news is there will be no property tax increase for Nassau County residents this year. The bad news is that the County may have to continue borrowing in order to close a huge budget gap as part of fiscal 2011.

Delivering his budget to the County Legislature this afternoon, County Executive Ed Mangano's budget promised a zero-percent increase in taxes, paid for by the elimination of 400 positions, consolidating administrative departments and staff, and one that "right-sizes" the County police administration.

"Tough times require tough decisions and swift action," Mangano, R-Bethpage, said in a statement. "My budget accomplishes both while protecting taxpayers."

Mangano has introduced the "Taxpayer Relief Act of 2010," a measure that asks for cuts from every department across Nassau. "We must realistically live within our means and cannot spend what taxpayers do not have," he said.

The County Executive had met earlier in the week with union representatives from the County police and civil service organizations about further cost-cutting measures.  The police currently have a contract that runs through 2011 and includes concessions already agreed to under the Suozzi administration.

"Nassau County has dedicated employees that are working even harder to deliver services," Mangano said. "I ask them to share in the sacrifices needed to fix Nassau's finances and to understand that taxpayers simply cannot afford to pay contracts that were entered into without considering residents ability to pay."

The Nassau Interim Finance Authority (NIFA), a watchdog group created by New York State following the County's bailout in 2000, oversees the County's finances, and has the ability to take control of Nassau's finances should there be a deficit of one-percent or more. Nassau's fiscal 2010 budget totaled $2.6 billion, while the $343 million deficit represents more than 13-percent of the budget.

Legislator Dave Denenberg, D-Merrick, whose district covers part of Wantagh, said he thinks the budget calls for an unprecedented amount of borrowing and no overall spending cuts.

"I am afraid that such a level of debt, which is being incurred just for operating expenses, will burden the taxpayers for the next 20 years and return Nassau to junk bond status. Moreover, the county executive's promised assessment review fixes have not come to pass, and, rather than keeping his promise to fix the system, the county executive proposes to have our schools, towns and villages pay for refunds that result from the county's inability to properly handle assessment challenges.  The real answer is the county must handle all challenges within the one year it has before the rolls are final so no money is owed."

Denenberg said the answer is "not to bond all the money the county owes and then dump the payments on our schools and towns."

"I cannot see how that helps taxpayers because it only shifts the burden to entities that have no power to fix the problem," he added. "Therefore, this alleged no tax increase budget really fee increases will force schools and towns to raise taxes even more."

A legislative aide for Norma Gonsalves, R-East Meadow, said the legislator "has not seen the budget as yet therefore she cannot comment on the county executive's announcement."

Jaime Sumersille contributed to this article.