Rockville Centre Letters to the Editor

Nassau must find a new way

To the Editor:

The election is over and victory was not mine in my run for a seat on the Nassau County Legislature in 6th LD. We knew winning was an uphill battle where a Democrat had never been elected. Nevertheless, I wanted to challenge the status quo and to fight to end fiscal mismanagement and to help create a revitalized, innovative Nassau County to compete with other regions in the country.

 I want to congratulate my opponent, William Gaylor, and wish him well in his first term. He is now my legislator as well, and we had a cordial relationship during the campaign. I hope he and the 18 other legislators can find a way to set aside partisan politics and do the right thing for all the people of Nassau County.

We desperately need to get our financial house in order. How can we expect Nassau County to progress if the business community believes our government cannot manage its own budget?

Nassau’s budget deficit grows every year. Projections for 2015 show a deficit of $175 million, which is anticipated to balloon to $311 million by 2018.

Our county is the second-wealthiest in New York and the 19th-wealthiest in America; yet Nassau County officials have so negligently mismanaged its finances that we are now close to $4 billion in debt. The millions needed to just service that debt could be used for improving our crumbling infrastructure.

To add insult to injury, the state has determined that Nassau is not competent to control its own finances. Because our government officials in Mineola cannot balance the budget, New York state oversees spending through the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, or NIFA. This is simply a travesty. The people of Nassau County should be outraged!

Furthermore, the property assessment system is completely dysfunctional. The only “winners” are the law firms that are hired by homeowners to grieve their assessments and the politicians who gain when those firms make large campaign contributions.