State board demands balanced budget

The state board in control of Nassau County’s finances has ordered County Executive Ed Mangano to devise cost-saving plans of up to $100 million after the Legislature approved a $2.9 billion budget on Oct. 31 without the means to pay for it.

Mangano has until Nov. 16 to deliver to the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority three contingency plans — one containing $50 million in cuts, another with $75 million and a third with $100 million — before NIFA steps in to assert its authority, according to a Nov. 2 letter to Mangano from NIFA Chairman Adam Barsky.

“While it remains the responsibility of county leaders to solve their own fiscal problems, we recognize our statutory mandate and are not taking any of our options off the table,” NIFA concluded in its Oct. 13 review of the county budget.

The Legislature approved the budget by an 11-6 vote on Oct. 31. However, a variety of new fees –– most controversially a $105 traffic and parking ticket hike that was decried by legislators and community representatives of both parties –– were not voted on.

“We believe this fee is illegal,” said the Legislature’s minority leader, Kevan Abraham, a Democrat of Freeport, of the ticket fee at an Oct. 31 budget hearing. He had earlier said that the county does not have authority from the state to impose a ticket fee, which he believes is required.

“When a customer gets a $190 parking ticket when shopping in Port Washington, what do you think is going to happen?” Councilwoman Dina De Giorgio, a Republican of North Hempstead, asked at the hearing, insisting that the fee could only harm local businesses and retail by causing more people to shop online instead of in person.

“I don’t think anyone can say charging someone almost $200 for being a few minutes late to their parking meter is justice,” Alec Slatky, of AAA Northeast, added.

County Comptroller George Maragos, who recently changed parties and announced a run next year for county executive, has recommended that all county departments revert to their 2016 budgets, then cut an additional 2.5 percent, to save $82.6 million and avoid the fees.

Legislators at the Oct. 31 hearing expressed skepticism at the proposal, which, they said, would equal layoffs and cuts in public services.

NIFA, which has exercised control over the county’s finances since it shifted from an oversight to a control board in 2011 after a budgetary crisis in Nassau, will be able to accept or reject any county budget plan.

The state board said in its review of the proposed budget that the roots of the fiscal problems facing Nassau run deep, and include the county’s guaranteeing school, county and village portions of tax refunds, overly optimistic revenue projections and borrowing for expenses that should be part of operating budgets.

The Legislature is expected to debate and vote on funding for the budget at its next meeting on Monday, Nov. 21.

Mangano could not be reached for comment.