The Republican majority in the Nassau County Legislature submitted amendments to County Executive Laura Curran’s $3.3 billion proposed 2021 budget, which featured restructuring $75 million of debt due to the coronavirus pandemic.
GOP officials said paying off the $75 million in debt this year rather than having the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, which has overseen the county’s finances for the past two decades, restructure it would ultimately save Nassau $95 million, according to a news release sent last Thursday.
“The Majority has created a more fiscally conservative plan,” the news release said. “The administration seeks to generate as much cash as possible in 2021 while increasing costs in future years and deferring any attempt to deal with Nassau’s structural imbalance.”
Curran introduced the proposed budget in September. The budget is a decrease from the $3.55 billion spending plan approved for 2020.
The budget calls for the finance authority to restructure $394 million in debt from the county and the finance authority, according to a county news release.
Curran said in September the uncertainty that has lingered due to the coronavirus pandemic was the reason for the proposed restructuring of debt.
“Restructuring bonds would not be necessary or justifiable in an ordinary year. Extraordinary times as these, however, call for this extraordinary, yet targeted and appropriate, measures,” Curran said.
The County Legislature’s presiding officer, Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park), said the negative impacts that the pandemic has had on sales taxes, a key component in the county’s revenues, have lessened, and Curran’s budget overestimated the drop in sales tax receipts. Nicolello said he expects the receipts to decline by just 12 percent next year, rather than 20 percent as outlined in Curran’s proposed budget.
“These commonsense amendments to the County Executive’s budget provide a more conservative framework for dealing with the county’s finances,” Nicolello said. “The amendments will reduce the cost of restructuring debt, and will create special revenue fund to attack the hundreds of millions of dollars in tax refund liability.”
The county’s majority legislators filed subpoenas for Nassau’s deputy county executive for finance, Raymond Orlando, and Budget Director Andrew Persich answered questions from the Budget Committee in August, after being subpoenaed by the majority.
Other amendments featured in the majority’s release included reinstating nearly $4.4 million of the money Curran cut from funding the NICE Bus to preserve service hours, providing the Emergency Ambulance Bureau $168,000 to add four people to the staff, and giving $345,000 to the district attorney’s budget to upgrade office technology.
Another amendment proposed by the majority in the Legislature is to create a special revenue fund where a surplus of various budgeted revenues will be used to address the coronavirus pandemic. Officials said the fund will be used to fully or partly fund “principal and interest payments on debt issued in 2021 or later.”
Michael Fricchione, a spokesperson for the Curran administration, told Newsday that budget officials for the county were reviewing the amendments as of Friday.
“Based on initial review, the Republican majority clearly doesn’t have an economic plan to get Nassau County through the COVID-19 pandemic. County Executive Curran has submitted a no property tax increase budget that prioritizes public safety and provides essential county services. County Executive Curran’s budget protects Nassau’s future,” Fricchione told Newsday.
Efforts to reach Fricchione or another spokesperson for further comment were unavailing.
The Republican majority, which holds an 11-8 advantage over the Democrats, is expected to vote whether to adopt the budget on Thursday.
