On The Right: Nassau: the good, the bad, the ugly

There’s actually some good news for Nassau County taxpayers: former County Comptroller Howard Weitzman has finally been appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to fill a vacancy on the board of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority.
The New York law that governs NIFA states that the authority “shall be administered by seven directors appointed by the governor.  
Of the seven directors, one each shall be appointed on the written recommendation of the majority leader of the State Senate, the Speaker of State Assembly and the State Comptroller, respectively.”
Weitzman was recommended by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie back in May to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Adam Haber.  
However, the governor procrastinated on giving his blessing until late August due to objections by Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano.
Mangano whined to the governor that he opposed the Weitzman appointment “to serve on the board of NIFA so as to enable that body to secure a non-partisan working relationship with Nassau County to benefit taxpayers.”
In other words, Mangano wants appointees to NIFA who agree with his misguided view of county finances.
Why does Mangano fear Weitzman?  
Because, unlike Mangano, Weitzman knows that a balanced budget based on Generally Accepted Accounting Principles — GAAP — means total tax and fee revenues match total operating expenses.  
Weitzman also knows that borrowing under GAAP cannot be treated as revenue to balance a budget — a fact Mangano has been unable to grasp during his seven years in office.
During my term as a NIFA director, I came to know Weitzman and have the greatest respect for his financial and accounting acumen.  
He is the shot in the arm the NIFA board needs to get the county on the path to fiscal sanity.
As for the bad:  it was recently revealed that Nassau owed $39.1 million in residential property tax refunds as of Dec. 31, 2015.
Mangano has been boasting for some time that his 2011 “Residential Tax Grievance Negotiation and Settlement Program” would adjudicate every household tax challenge before new tax bills were determined.  
The county’s liability claims, he has insisted, would be zero.
It turns out that Mangano’s claim was not only wrong; he has not understood his own program.  Apparently he — and his crack staff — did not know that residential properties also include low-rise condominiums.  
Hence, residential refunds awarded to those condominium owners of $10.7 million in 2014 and $28.4 million in 2015 were undetected by Mangano.
Due to gross incompetence, the county owes refunds, as of Dec. 31, 2015, of $39.1 million on residential property, $27.1 million on apartment buildings, $25.8 million on utility properties, and $214 million on commercial properties — for a grand total of $316 million.
And where does Mangano expect to get the money to pay back this debt?  
By borrowing.
Present taxpayers, their children and grandchildren will be paying for Mangano’s fiscal follies for decades to come.
As for the ugly:  The former North Hempstead political power broker, Gerard Terry, was indicted again by a grand jury on Aug. 18.
Back in April, Terry was charged with failing to fill a State income tax return in 2011 and to pay back taxes.  
In August, he was hit with three counts of tax fraud and three counts of offering a false instrument for filing.
What is so ugly is that for years Terry had employment contracts with five local government agencies and not one of them did a serious background check on him.
For no one to catch that Terry owed the IRS and the state as much as $1.4 million in back taxes is an outrage.
Over the Labor Day Weekend, try not to labor too much over how much you will have to pay in increased county property taxes in the years to come.