It’s that time of year again — British journalist G.K. Chesterton’s “silly season,” when politicians hope that taxpayers are preoccupied with their summer outings and not paying attention to underhanded antics.
This year, Nassau Comptroller George Maragos tops the “Silly Season” list.
In July, Maragos — who is supposed to be a fiscal watchdog exposing wasteful spending in a county that is on the edge of insolvency — distributed 50,000 copies of a flier, printed and paid for by the county, with his name and picture front and center, listing Nassau’s free summer concerts.
Huh?
Being a publicity agent is not in the comptroller’s job description.
When called on the matter, Maragos made this ridiculous statement: “It didn’t cost anything.”
The best reaction to the Maragos rationale was from Nassau County Legislator Judith Jacobs.
She said, “Is paper free? Is ink free? Do employees work for free? I don’t get this. And he is the person who has the financial oversight for the County.”
I second those comments and add this: does Maragos value the work of County employees so lowly that he believes the time they spent distributing this wasteful publication was “free,” too?
That flier urged county residents to call his office with information on waste, fraud and abuse: I wonder how many calls he got about the wasteful flier.
There’s more.
On July 13, Maragos announced in a press release that “Audited 2015 County Financials Confirm $28 million GAAP surplus.”
That’s absurd! Under “Generally Accepted Accounting Principles,” there was not a surplus, but a deficit of $125.3 million.
Although Maragos concedes that the so-called surplus “was achieved primarily through borrowing;” after six and a half years in office he still does not understand that under GAAP, “borrowing” cannot be treated as revenue.
Only taxes, aid from federal and state governments and fees (along with less regular activities such as sales of assets) are considered revenue — in other words, items which produce cash for the county but which don’t have to be repaid!.
On another front, Newsday columnist Joye Brown recently reported that Maragos appears to “be putting distance between himself and County Executive Ed Mangano.”
He has beefed up his Audit Department with the hiring of former federal prosecutor and failed Democrat DA primary candidate Michael Scotto to head that unit.
And there are rumors that Maragos might seek the county executive post in 2017.
I suppose Maragos is as qualified as Mangano for the county’s top post. Which isn’t saying much for either of them.
Mangano, like Maragos, after almost two terms in office, still believes borrowed money can be used to balance budgets.
Speaking of Mangano, he too is guilty of squandering taxpayers’ money on vanity mailings.
In a flier I received last week, Mangano boasts that “Nassau County government makes up only 16 percent of your total tax bill, down from 19 percent in 2009.”
Meanwhile, between 2009, the year Mangano took office, and 2016, the education portion of our total tax bill has increased from 67 percent to 71 percent.
The inference appears to be that during Mangano’s tenure, county taxes have been declining.
But that inference is false.
As a percentage of one’s total tax bill, the county portion has declined for two reasons: School taxes have gone up every year and Mangano has not increased county taxes because he has burdened taxpayers with ever increasing long-term debt to fund his annual GAAP budget deficit.
In other words, the school districts, towns (with the exception of debt addicted Oyster Bay, perhaps) and villages all balanced their budgets, while Mangano and his team kick the can down the road — a road that is, given his repetition of this action, now practically a highway.
Mangano’s tax bill flier is fatally flawed.
It compares apples to oranges with both varieties of fruit being, in this case, rotten.
Either Mangano is trying to con his constituents or he has not yet mastered simple arithmetic or the accounting understanding expected of college freshmen.
Do enjoy your summer.
Be assured I will keep you informed of any additional “Silly Season” political follies.
