Thursday, October 1, 2026
Affordable living in Nassau County is a great concern for most residents. As a former member of the Legislature’s Finance Committee who now serves on the Rules Committee, I have kept an eye on wasteful expenditures, missed opportunities for substantial revenue, and employment-generating projects.
Nassau County residents deserve to know how their hard-earned tax dollars are being spent. So let’s take a closer look.
The county has lost two major development opportunities this year, one at the Uniondale Hub and another on the Nassau Community College campus. In April 2023, County Executive Bruce Blakeman, with great fanfare announced an agreement with Las Vegas Sands for a $6 billion project at the Hub anchored by a casino and resort. According to Blakeman, it was a can’t-miss opportunity that would transform the property occupied by Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
That can’t-miss opportunity missed. This April, the Sands abruptly announced that it was no longer pursuing this project.
Also in 2023, NYU Langone, the county and NCC commenced negotiations to build a $3 billion medical facility on campus. Blakeman boasted that the project would create “the number one hospital in America.” This March, NYU Langone unexpectedly withdrew from the project, stating that “external factors” made the project “too burdensome to proceed.”
With that, $9 billion in projected growth for Nassau’s future, thousands of construction jobs, employment opportunities and millions in tax revenue to sustain vital services were erased.
Critical investments for the greater good continue to stagnate. Since 2022, the county has accrued nearly $100 million in opioid lawsuit settlement funds, but only $9.1 million has been disbursed to agencies for prevention, treatment and recovery services. The prevalence of opioid use requires an immediate and sustained response, and utilizing these settlement proceeds increases the likelihood of long-term success, which in turn lessens crime as well as the societal and financial burdens of addiction borne by us all.
As for wasteful expenditures, Blakeman has nearly tripled the amount of money spent on outside counsel contracts to represent the county instead of using the county attorney’s office. According to Newsday, some of these contracts went to firms that have donated to Republicans, including Blakeman. The cost of these contracts increased from $6 million in 2022 to over $20 million in 2024. Last year alone, the county spent nearly twice as much on outside counsel than on the entire county attorney’s office.
In early 2024, with a Republican majority vote, the county’s $200,000 annual contract for legal advertisements with Newsday was canceled and replaced by the New York Post, even though Newsday published over 1,600 articles about Nassau County in 2024, whereas the Post published only 155.
In January, Newsday sued the county, alleging First Amendment violations and retaliation for news articles and editorials that county officials considered unfavorable. In May, the Republican majority in the Legislature authorized up to $1.7 million to retain a Manhattan-based law firm to defend the lawsuit, at a rate of $1,400 to $2,200 an hour.
The administration and the legislative majority have also approved $3.2 million to fight a court ruling that Nassau County wrongfully charged more than $400 million in red-light camera ticket fees. They have not planned for the possibility that the county will be forced to return millions of dollars to impacted drivers.
Then there is Blakeman’s provisional deputy sheriff program, known as his “militia.” After he did not respond to our requests for basic information, in the interest of public safety and protecting taxpayers from exposure to financial liability, Legislator Debra Mulé and I sued Blakeman — which could have been avoided if he had simply followed the law. It is important to note that, while our counsel in that case is pro bono, the administration has again retained outside counsel, at a cost of up to $200,000.
As for county finances, the independent, nonpartisan Office of Legislative Budget Review recently reported that the Blakeman administration would be on pace to run a $100 million deficit in 2025, if not for the use of reserves made possible by last year’s one-time infusion of money from the federal American Rescue Plan Act. In doing so, they have created the illusion of a balanced budget while, in fact, they are spending more than they are taking in.
As we move forward, it is imperative to eliminate unnecessary expenditures and make fiscal decisions based on reasonable revenue projections. Blakeman is now crafting the 2026 budget during a time of tremendous uncertainty in which significant federal funding cuts are likely. We must be more fiscally prudent and not risk the county’s financial health by gambling on potential revenue sources that can disappear on a whim.
Scott M. Davis represents Nassau County’s 1st D
