Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano looked toward Nassau’s future on Tuesday in his annual State of the County address, envisioning an economy founded on new technology.
Mangano touted his efforts to create jobs, lighten residents’ property tax burdens and shrink government amid the county’s fiscal struggles, while promising growth in the health-care industry — centered on the proposed Nassau Hub — to support the county into the future.
“Just as the federal government helped transform Nassau into a defense industry economy on the eve of World War II, we will help transform our economy into a global leader in health-care related research and development,” Mangano told the crowd at the Museum of American Armor in Old Bethpage.
But to Democratic county Legislators, Mangano and the Legislature’s Republican majority have yet to sufficiently reform the county contract system that has dogged them for nearly a year.
In the Democrats’ response to Mangano’s address, Legislator Kevan Abrahams (D-Hempstead) called again for an independent inspector general to review all county contracts.
Touting his efforts to reform the contract system Mangano said his administration has brought “historic levels of transparency, oversight, and checks and balances.” He also called for public campaign financing as a way to limit contracts’ political influence.
But checks and balances are “a minimum expectation of your county government,” Abrahams said, and the county has not implemented several reforms Democrats and others have proposed.
“Every dollar spent on an unnecessary contract is a dollar stolen from your pocket,” he said. “You are being forced to work to financially support the politically connected insiders who are putting their interests above yours, and enough is enough.”
Mangano on Tuesday elucidated a vision for new Nassau economy founded on medical research and development, with the proposed Nassau Hub a “catalyst to attract companies and researchers from across the globe,” he said.
In addition to the $260 million renovation of the Nassau Coliseum into a sports, entertainment and retail complex, the Hub will include a branch of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and possibly a Center for Bioelectronic Medicine run by Northwell Health’s Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Mangano said.
Together, the facilities would create 400 new jobs and could attract billions of dollars in investment from similar institutions, he said.
“From university labs, research facilities such as Feinstein and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, the nation’s brightest scientists and the smartest venture capitalists will seek a home here,” Mangano said.
The county executive also touted his efforts to lighten the burden on taxpayers since he took office.
The county’s portion of the average tax bill has decreased from 19 percent to 16 percent since 2009, he said.
Mangano also said the county has frozen property taxes since 2010 for households earning less than $500,000 annually. Taxes actually increased 3.4 percent in 2015, and taxpayers got a rebate for the hike at the end of that year.
“The middle class was squeezed like a lemon from every angle,” Mangano said. “The bitter taste of that lemon drove me to seek changes on your behalf.”
Mangano said his administration has “cracked down on wasteful spending” and touted his efforts to reform the contract process, which came under scrutiny last spring after former Republican state Sen. Dean Skelos and his son Adam were indicted on federal corruption charges that involved their meddling with a $12 million Nassau County contract for Arizona-based AbTech Industries.
Both were convicted in November and are appealing.
Since then, Mangano said, his administration added a procurement compliance director to review contracts, a position that has yet to be permanently filled.
The Legislature approved his proposal for a county lobbying registry last year, and his proposal to lower the threshold for legislative review of contracts from $25,000 to $1,000 will be voted on next week.
“When concerns are raised I believe the answer is more disclosure, more sunlight and more transparency; yet additional actions must also be taken,” Mangano said.
Abrahams, though, criticized Mangano, Legislature Presiding Officer Norma Gonsalves and the Republican majority for stonewalling a package of reforms Democrats first proposed in the wake of Skelos’ indictment.
Nassau District Attorney Madeline Singas and good-government advocates have also called for additional reforms.
Referring several times to Nassau’s contract system as a “pay-to-play” system, Abrahams said unnecessary no-bid contracts increase residents’ burden by wasting funds and leading to tax and fee increases.
“Wouldn’t you agree that this culture of ‘pay to play’ politics has got to stop?” he said. “Nassau taxpayers can no longer afford it.”
Abrahams’ rebuttal also criticized Republicans more broadly for denying to bring Democratic bills to the Legislature’s floor for debate.
In a statement Wednesday, Gonsalves declined to comment on “Legislator Abrahams’ partisan potshots.”
Reach reporter Noah Manskar by e-mail at nmanskar@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x204. Also follow us on Twitter @noahmanskar and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.
