An impromptu debate at GN chamber

Dan Glaun

A Great Neck Chamber of Commerce breakfast was the scene of an impromptu debate Thursday morning, as Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos made an unscheduled appearance and traded barbs with Democratic Comptroller candidate Howard Weitzman.

Weitzman, the fomer comptroller and Great Neck Estates mayor who was expected to be the morning’s only speaker, laid into Maragos for what he described as his and County Executive Edward Mangano’s (R-Bethpage) “alternate universe” of budgetary gimmicks.

“I’m running again because of what I see as the financial destruction of Nassau County,” Weitzman said.

Maragos defended the county’s financial reporting and performance and accused Weitzman of distorting the record for political purposes.

“We borrowed less and we’ve paid off some of the long-term debt,” Maragos said. “We have not raised property taxes for four consecutive years and now with the new proposed budget in 2014, that will be the fifth year without a property tax increase.”

As in past clashes between the candidates, the role of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority was a flashpoint.

NIFA, the state control board created during the administration of former Nassau County Executive Tom Gullota (R) and which took over the county’s finances in 2011, has been harshly critical of the Mangano administration’s budgeting – charges which Maragos has described as politicized.

“For a county like ours to be taken over by a state agency is a shame,” Weitzman said.

Maragos said that NIFA had judged Suozzi’s administration by a looser standard, and that under current accounting Suozzi would have left office with a $250 million deficit. NIFA currently projects deficits in excess of $100 million through 2017 for the county, while the county’s numbers are more optimistic – a disparity that Maragos attributed to NIFA not counting non-recurring revenues, like interest payments, that the county relies on in its budgets.

“[The NIFA deficit] is not real,” Maragos said.

Weitzman also took issue with the county’s claims of a $41 million surplus in 2012. The county had been scheduled to pay off over $80 million in tax refunds in December, but a court approved Nassau County Attorney John Ciampoli’s petition to shift the payments into 2013, taking the liability’s off the county’s books for 2012.

Weitzman said that Maragos had described the surplus as “miraculous.” He described it in less charitable terms.

“It wasn’t miraculous. it had nothing to do with divine intervention – it was judicial intervention,” Weitzman said.

Maragos disputed Weitzman’s characterization of the county’s finances, including an allegation that the county had misled the public by not including hundreds of millions in pending property tax refund liabilities in its debt calculations.

“He knows very well as a CPA… multiple agencies closely monitor the county’s finances. We have outside auditors,” Maragos said. “There’s no such thing as hiding bills in the drawer. That’s an outright lie to mislead you.”

The candidates also sparred over the impact of the county’s tax assessment system on school tax rates. 

Weitzman and his ticketmate, former County Executive Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), have pointed to spikes in school tax rates across the county as evidence that the Mangano administration’s policy of aggressively settling tax refunds has shifted the tax burden to homeowners who do not challenge their tax bill.

Mangano has said the policy has saved the county tens of millions by avoiding tax refund payouts, and said the responsibility for increases lies with school districts. Maragos acknowledged that the assessment system does contribute to tax rate increases, but said the policy preserved homeowners’ rights.

“The portion that you can blame on the assessment system is 2.5 [percent,]” Maragos said. “But if you think that through, is that nobody wants to deny a person’s right to grieve their [assessment.] That would be un-American.”

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