In his bid to satisfy requirements set by the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority, Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano presented a financial plan for fiscal year 2011 on Wednesday that would institute across the board cuts to reduce county spending by $181.9 million.
“Since the last thing Nassau families need in these tough economic times is a double-digit property tax increase, I have cut government spending,” Mangano said. “This first round of cuts will affect every area of the county and the services we provide.”
NIFA took control of the county’s finances in January after it determined that the county budget would result in a $176 million deficit. Under state law, NIFA must certify that Nassau County’s budget is balanced and assume control over county finances if they believe it is running a deficit of more than 1 percent.
Mangano said his plan, which would be implemented by July 1, would save homeowners and employers from a 21.5 percent increase in county property taxes.
“This is what it would take for Nassau County to meet the high bar set by NIFA,” Mangano said. “Should dollars appear for unfunded mandates, we will continue those programs.”
He said he would save $50 million with the elimination of 213 county jobs, 307 vacant positions and reduce seasonal and part-time employees. He said he would also require 13 unpaid vacation days for county personnel.
Mangano also said hundreds of contract positions would be eliminated for savings of $17.7 million.
This would include $5.59 million from the Department of Social Services, $2.37 million from the Department of Information Technology, $2.21 million from the health department, $1.94 million from public works and $1.3 million from the department of chemical dependency.
Mangano said an additional $10.5 million in savings would come from freezing wages and longevity pay.
At the same time, he called on NIFA to freeze wages.
While Mangano said further concessions from labor unions could lessen the severity of cuts, PBA President James Carver said that the union has already offered concessions.
“They got their concessions,” he said. “Now that they got their concessions, they don’t want to live up to their end of the bargain.”
Nassau County Deputy Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams (D-Hempstead) said Mangano is partly to blame for the severity of the cuts due to his defiance of NIFA.
“Many of these proposals could have been implemented a year ago,” he said.
Calling the cuts draconian, Abrahams said some will do more harm than good, driving people into the criminal justice system.
“We don’t have those gang prevention programs, we don’t have those chemical dependency programs, we don’t have those mental health programs,” he said. “We’re going to pay for it one way or another.”
At the same time, Nassau County Legislator Wayne Wink (D-Roslyn) questioned Mangano’s commitment to cutting the county workforce.
Since instituting a hiring freeze, Mangano hired 125 new people, Wink said.
“One hundred and twenty five new people in Nassau County is not a hiring freeze in my opinion,” he said.
“We don’t support the health and human services cuts because we do not believe he has cut deep enough in the outside counsel,” Abrahams said.
In 2010, Mangano spend $10 million on outside counsel, including those connected to his former law firm of Rivkin Radler, according to Wink and Abrahams.
The plan includes $15 million in savings by restructuring the police department to reduce mandatory overtime.
Although Mangano provided few details, the restructure calls for redeploying 142 sworn officers and up to 41 civilian posts.
“There is no question that we have the safest county in the country and we intend to keep it that way,” he said.
Carver said the Nassau County Police Department does not have 142 police officers to redeploy.
“I think he is going down the wrong path and affecting public safety,” he said, promising to challenge Mangano in court.
