By Scott Brinton
"Nassau County is now the only county in New York state that has not raised its property taxes for five consecutive years," Suozzi declared during a news conference at his Mineola office. Flanking him at the lectern were Thomas Stokes, deputy county executive for management and finance, and Elissa Iannicello, director of finance and operations.
The county's $2.5 billion budget projects a 1.9 percent increase in county spending in 2008. But Suozzi, a Democrat from Glen Cove, said the county kept the tax levy -- the amount it needs to raise in taxes -- level by consolidating government services and winning "record" labor concessions, particularly from the Police Benevolent Association.
No doubt, with Long Island homeowners' tax bills now the highest in the nation, property taxes rank among Nassau residents' top issues. With election season looming only weeks away -- and 19 seats up for grabs in the County Legislature, where Democrats hold a tenuous 10-9 majority -- incumbent candidates clamored for level property taxes.
"Democratic and Republican legislators made it clear they don't want to see a property-tax increase," Suozzi said.
In March, after Suozzi's State of the County address, the Legislature's minority leader, Republican Peter Schmidt, chided the county executive, saying, "Since Mr. Suozzi has taken office, county taxes have increased 20 percent, and county spending has increased over $739 million."
In Suozzi's first year in office, 2002, he raised property taxes in the 2003 budget by 19.4 percent. Since then, he has not increased them.
On Monday, Suozzi said that spending increases are inevitable because of uncontrolled costs, such as rising health-insurance premiums for county workers and unfunded state mandates. He also said the 2008 budget is slated to increase by $52 million. Of that, $12.9 million will be added to pre-school special education funding, as required by a state mandate. Health insurance for county employees will jump 7.2 percent, or $17 million. And the county's utility bill will rise 7.2 percent, or $3.9 million.
To help offset the spending increases, the county is reducing overtime for the police and correction departments by $7 million.
The county will hire 100 new police officers in November, and an additional 130 officers in 2008. Given the past animosity between Suozzi and the Police Benevolent Association, contract negotiations between the two parties were expected to be contentious this year. Surprisingly, however, they were settled relatively quickly and amicably. The police contract, Suozzi said, "includes a spending increase of 2.75 percent -- 1 percent below the rate of inflation." He added that the county intends to seek additional below-inflation contract increases with other unions.
Additionally, in 2008, the county plans to raise park, golf and marine fees, Suozzi said. He did not offer exact figures.
Non-profit social-service agencies the county hires can expect "minimal increases" in their annual contracts, said Stokes. In a Herald report in July, Peter Levy, a Jericho attorney who is president of the Nassau County Coalition of Youth Service Agencies, said he was concerned that the non-profit agencies might face cuts in 2008. He noted that since Suozzi has taken office, the agencies have seen no inflationary increases in their budgets, although the county has restored most of the cuts to those budgets made under former County Executive Thomas Gulotta, a Republican from North Merrick.
The Coalition of Youth Service Agencies represents 32 of the 40 non-profit groups with which the county contracts. Without inflationary increases, a number of the agencies have had to cut back their operations. In 1999, for example, the Long Island Crisis Center of Bellmore received $264,966 in county funding. Gulotta lopped off half of it. Most of the money was restored under the Suozzi administration, but in 2006, the Crisis Center, which provides suicide counseling services for teenagers and young adults, received $255,000 from the county, and the same amount in 2007. If the county had offered inflationary increases to its budget -- around 3 percent annually -- it would now receive $326,329. As a result, the Crisis Center, which depends heavily on county funds, has had to reduce its staff of four full-time workers to three.
Suozzi said the county now provides better social services than it did previously because it consolidated its array of human-service departments under one roof, from drug and alcohol treatment to veterans affairs, enabling it save on administrative costs.
"This is a tight budget," Suozzi said. "This is a tough budget."
But the county executive concluded, "We have to continue to find ways to consolidate this government."
Comments about this story? SBrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
