Mangano is sending Nassau County back to the bad old days

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  Ask any economist, and they will tell you that endless borrowing is the formula for fiscal meltdown. Nassau County is drowning in debt, and Mangano and the Republicans have no idea what to do about it.

In addition to the $2 billion he has already borrowed, Mangano’s latest budget plan calls for borrowing an additional $3 billion over the next four years. That’s how he has “balanced” the county’s budgets –– by borrowing billions of dollars.

You and I would never consider our household budget balanced if we had to borrow money to pay our bills. So why then would we consider our county budget balanced if the county government must borrow money to pay its bills? The financial crisis caused by Mangano’s mismanagement of county finances will not be solved by four more years of borrowing.

If we have learned one thing from Ed Mangano’s administration, it is that the Nassau County Republican Party is so rooted in its past that it is willing to rob us of our future. We can’t pass this massive debt on to future generations. If we don’t do something now to stop this decline, Nassau taxpayers will eventually have to foot Mangano’s bill, in the form of higher taxes.

Nassau County voters deserve the facts from the Heralds’ columnists, not fiction. They deserve the truth. And, most of all, county voters deserve real leadership from their elected officials. The county needs Tom Suozzi. He’s the leadership Nassau needs now.

Michael Zapson is the chairman of the Long Beach Democratic Committee, and a former Nassau County legislator and Long Beach city councilman.

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