Editorial: Time for NIFA to take control

The Island Now

If you are an optimist, you might hope that the Nassau County Legislature was merely engaging in craven, political posturing prior to an election when they approved a $2.95 billion 2016 budget that stripped out a 1.2 percent tax hike and slashed two fees increases proposed by County Executive Edward Mangano two weeks ago.

Afterall, once the election was over and the legislators were re-elected with the help of gerrymandered districts, they might come to their senses and develop a realistic budget. Or so an optimist might hope.

But we’re not optimists. 

We think the evidence is fairly overwhelming that either the Nassau County Legislature and county executive simply don’t get it. Or won’t get it.

In a party-line vote just days before an election that preserved the status quo, the Legislature’s Republican majority did replace the $28 million in increased revenues proposed by Mangano with other revenue sources. 

Democratic legislators also came up with revenues to replace amendments to the Mangano’s budget that would have eliminated the tax hike, all fee increases and $20 million in revenue from a video gambling parlor that does not yet have a location and which Democrats oppose.

But in a bipartisan show of irresponsibility, neither Republican legislators nor Democratic legislators fully addressed what the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, a state monitoring board in control of the county’s finance, identified as $191 million in risky revenue assumptions in Mangano’s budget. 

All of which helps explain why Nassau County — one of the wealthiest counties in the New York — required a $500 million state bailout in 2000 and has remained under state supervision ever since.

Last week, Managano vetoed the Republican legislators’ budget amendments. 

Republican and Democratic legislators then both submitted resolutions to override Mangano’s veto — separately. Thereby falling short of the 13 votes needed to override the veto.

Which means the veto stands unless Republican and Democratic legislators come together by Friday. And even then they fall well short of what NIFA says is needed.

We say enough’s enough.

Both Mangano and the Legislature have failed to develop realistic budgets in recent years, relying instead on dubious revenue numbers and gimmicks such as red-light cameras in school zones and casino gambling.

Nor have voters — admittedly hampered by gerrymandering — done anything to change the players.

Jon Kaiman, the former North Hempstead Town Supervisor who now heads NIFA, said the state monitoring board was ready to take action after the Republican legislators approved the amended budget.

“I am disappointed the Legislature finds it so easy to disconnect from Nassau County’s budget realities,” Kaiman said, according to report in Newsday. “We are going to take actions of the legislature serious and anticipate moving forward with our responsibility to get the county’s finances in a better place sooner than later.”

Kaiman said if NIFA were to reject the changes, the monitoring board could impose changes, including a freeze on new hires, spending cuts for all departments and limiting approval of new contracts.

Our question to Kaman is: what are you waiting for?

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