By Scott Brinton
15.4-percent tax hike fuels debate in County Legislature
Democrats and Republicans alike blame one another for the 15.4-percent tax hike that the Nassau Legislature passed 10-9 last Thursday in the $2.2 billion 2001 county budget. The spending plan now must receive final approval from the County Executive.
Democratic legislators said they were forced to raise taxes after inheriting a $2 billion county debt and an estimated $130 million budget deficit from Republicans. The tax increase was needed, Democrats said, even after the Legislature slashed county spending by $110 million and froze wages of hundreds of employees -- including police officers and detectives.
Nassau's fiscal quagmire, Democrats said, was brought by failed GOP economic policy. The Legislature's Presiding Officer, Judy Jacobs (D-Woodbury), said, "This is a Democratic budget with a 15-percent tax increase that was made necessary by all these years of fiscal mismanagement by the Republican Party. People should be angry. We're angry."
Republican legislators said that their Democratic counterparts, who hold a legislative majority by one vote, have kept programs in the 2001 budget that should be eliminated or picked up by New York State. They included Long Island Bus among those programs for state takeover. Republicans also said that Democratic legislators budgeted too high for emergencies, placing millions of dollars where they do not belong, in the hands of County Executive Thomas Gulotta.
Legislator Francis Becker (R-Lynbrook) said, "We don't feel we should let the Executive have any more money than is necessary to meet the expenses of the county."
By eliminating subsidies for programs such as L.I. Bus, as well as contingency funds, the Legislature could have passed a budget with a more modest tax increase, Republicans said.
In a news conference last Friday, Mr. Gulotta called a 15.4-percent tax hike "unacceptable." The original 2001 budget proposed by the County Executive included a 4-percent tax increase. However, Democrats were quick to note that his spending plan would fall short by about $81 million.
The County Executive alone now holds the power to veto the budget that the Legislature adopted along strict political lines (10 "yes" votes for Democrats, nine "no" votes for Republicans). In an interview with The Herald on Monday, Mr. Gulotta said "We're reviewing the budget that was adopted by the Legislature...There will be further action on that later this week. I will not permit the 15.4-percent to stand."
The County Executive added, "I hope to do that through an agreement with the Legislature where they would agree to cut government spending rather than increasing taxes to the extent that they have. If all else fails, as a last resort, I will exercise my veto power to cut government spending."
Also in question was whether the state's seven-member Nassau Interim Finance Authority would certify the Legislature's spending plan.
Residents now paying the average $1,050 in Nassau taxes would add another $155 to their county bills if the hike approved by the Legislature goes through. By comparison, the County Executive's original budget proposal would mean a $33 increase per average household.
'Essential services'
In all, the Legislature's tax hike would generate about $65 million in revenue for the county, enough to keep "essential" services intact, said Democratic leaders.
Among those services was the Nassau County Youth Board. Earlier during budget negotiations, Mr. Gulotta had proposed a merger of sorts between the Youth Board and the Department of Social Services. The County Executive would have eliminated the Youth Board commissioner's job -- a $129,000 cost-saving measure -- and given oversight of the agency to the Social Services commissioner. However, in doing so, he would have jeopardized $2 million in state grant monies to the Youth Board, said Legislator David Denenberg (D-Merrick).
The possible loss of state funds led to concerns that the Youth Board might not survive long term. Paula Grenot, assistant director of the Long Island Crisis Center in Bellmore, was particularly worried. Her agency had already lost $103,000 in county cuts earlier this year. Any further funding reductions for youth services could have forced the suicide-prevention hotline to shutter, she said.
Both Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature restored the Youth Board commissioner's job in their budget proposals. Legislator Norma Gonsalves (R-East Meadow) said, "We're not cold-hearted. We're very compassionate. We want to see the essential services remain intact."
Democrats restored about 300 union jobs that Mr. Gulotta cut in his proposal. Elimination of those positions would have crippled the county, said Ms. Jacobs, particularly the Departments of Parks and Recreation and Public Works. Those departments, she said, have been particularly hard hit by cutbacks that have left them with skeleton staffs. "The Department of Public Works said they are so decimated, they can't handle a third snowstorm," said Ms. Jacobs. "The Parks Department indicated they can't cut the grass."
Legislator Jeff Toback (D-Oceanside) said the Republican budget proposal could have forced public-works garages in Inwood and Oceanside, where snowplows for the South Shore are stored, to close. That would have meant area residents would have had to wait for plows from the Roosevelt garage in the event of a snowstorm.
Also, Mr. Toback said, parks that fall near each other, such as North Woodmere Park and Grant Park in Hewlett, might have opened only on alternate days. He added, "It would have been very possible these parks would have closed."
Mr. Gulotta said he cannot line-item veto employees' positions. The Legislature must approve elimination of any County jobs. "Downsizing" 300 union jobs, coupled with labor concessions, would have saved Nassau $50 million, said Mr. Gulotta.
The inability of the County Executive to cut union employees meant, in effect, that Mr. Gulotta could push through his budget version. At the same time, the Executive's looming veto could force the Legislature to rethink a 15.4-percent tax increase.
In the end, Mr. Gulotta said, "It would appear there would have to be a happy-medium between what the Legislature adopted in terms of 15.4 percent and what my budget proposed, which was 4 percent."
In total, the Legislature proposed elimination of 109 non-union positions from a variety of departments in 2001. In 2000, the county cut 800 employees from its work force.
Similarities and differences
In many ways, Republican and Democratic legislators found common ground over the budget. Both, for example, agreed to mergers between: the General Services and Parks Departments; the Labor Relations and Personnel Offices, and the Affirmative Action and Minority Affairs Offices, for a total saving of about $1.2 million.
Democrats and Republicans, however, differed over two key items -- Long Island Bus and contingency funding. The Republican budget plan would have eliminated monies for L.I. Bus entirely, in hopes that the state would pick up the loss as it did this year. In 2000, the state provided $7.9 million for L.I. Bus in a deal engineered by State Senate Deputy Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli (who is also chairman of the Nassau County Democratic Party).
Democrats said, though, that the county could not count on the state to pay for L.I. Bus, which is used primarily by older adults and poorer residents. Presiding Officer Jacobs said that in recent talks, Mr. DiNapoli had said, "Don't bank on our [the state's] restoration in your budget" for L.I. Bus. She added that the state, through N.I.F.A., is already providing $105 million in bailout money for Nassau County in the coming years.
Still, Ms. Gonsalves said, "We must pursue the M.T.A. in funding Long Island Bus. Many years ago, when the state was not in fiscal shape, or just before they went into the red, they were funding Long Island Bus. Very affluent Nassau County assumed that obligation. We were the only county that did."
Democrats eliminated $3.5 million from the bus service. Mr. Denenberg said, though, that "we have assurances from L.I. bus that there would be no reduction in services" resulting from such a cut.
The other sticking point over the budget was the contingency fund proposed by Democratic legislators. Democrats allocated $12 million for emergencies, such as the recent West Nile virus crisis, said Mr. Denenberg.
Republicans included no such "rainy-day" fund in their budget. "A contingency fund would be nice, but it should not be the focus of what we're looking for this year," said Legislator Becker. "The Republicans' five-year plan [would] eventually incorporate a rainy-day fund."
Finally, the Democrats' spending plan included $18 million to pay down Nassau's ballooning debt, which accounts for about 20 percent of its total budget, said Mr. Denenberg. Each year, that debt costs local taxpayers roughly $400 million in finance charges, he said.
