NIFA gives Mangano until Tuesday to cut $18M from county budget

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The Nassau County Interim Finance Authority last week made good on its threat to impose its own cuts on the county’s $3 billion budget, which legislators have struggled for months to balance to the financial control board’s satisfaction.

In a letter to outgoing County Executive Ed Mangano on Nov. 30, NIFA Chairman Adam Barsky directed him to cut $17.7 million in Other Than Personal Services expenses — which includes outside contracts, utilities and supplies — across all departments.

Barsky also directed Mangano to cut $800,000 in health insurance spending countywide, and to raise $1 million in revenues by collecting fines from traffic ticket scofflaws.

The order marks the first time that NIFA — which was appointed by the state to oversee the county’s troubled finances in 2000, and has had veto power over the county’s budget since 2011 — has stepped in with its own budget cuts.

A budget that met NIFA’s standards as balanced was due on Nov. 27.

Presiding Officer Norma Gonsalves, in a last-minute effort to satisfy the control board, sent a letter that day to NIFA’s chairman, Adam Barsky, proposing several new adjustments to the budget, but a number of them were rejected.

The Republican-controlled legislature was informed earlier in November that NIFA would not accept outgoing County Executive Ed Mangano’s budget after lawmakers removed $59 million in revenues from fee increases that were universally unpopular. Both parties submitted a number of amendments in efforts to make up the revenue, but NIFA saw many of the measures as too risky.

In their analysis of the amended budget, NIFA's directors said that legislators should make $31.5 million in budget cuts to make up for the risky assumptions and revenue schemes they identified in the budget.

According to David Chauvin, a spokesman for NIFA, Mangano’s office was expected to submit a spreadsheet detailing where the cuts would be made by the end of the day on Monday. NIFA’s directors will then be likely to approve the new spending plan at their meeting on Thursday.

According to Chauvin, County Executive-elect Laura Curran, once she takes office on Jan. 1, will still be able to reallocate money within the budget, as long as it does not increase overall.