GOP prepares to retake control in Nassau
Photo credit: Howard Schnapp | Edward Mangano is challenging incumbent Thomas Suozzi for Nassau County executive. (Nov. 5, 2009)
2009 Long Island elections
Edward Mangano photos
Barring a sudden turn in the Nassau vote count, Republican Edward Mangano will become the next county executive. Tentative preparations are in progress for his takeover from two-termer Thomas Suozzi, as the GOP readies its return to majority status in the county legislature.
If any song suits the incoming crew's inauguration, it may be "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," rather than "Happy Days Are Here Again." During the campaign, Mangano vowed revocation of the unpopular utility tax; he also cited the Nassau Interim Finance Authority's reports on the county's growing deficits - which will force difficult choices on him and the lawmakers.
Reports by the authority and the Office of Legislative Budget Review suggest the nastiest of weather comes in 2011 - no matter who's in charge. Debt service, health costs and pension obligations, all sizable expenses, are rising sharply; none can be reduced instantly or by fiat. Deferred raises and contractual salary increases will come due. Certain federal aid is expected to expire.
Some in Mineola have even been talking about a financial tidal wave.
Projections might be flexible with an upturn in the economy. Still, the legislative budget office said before the election that the Suozzi administration "optimistically hopes to do the same with less, but this may be the time to recognize that based on the county's revenue it will have to do less with less."
Compared to the fiscal trauma Suozzi inherited when he took office in 2002, this crisis looks more like "a slow bleed," said an ex-NIFA member, who added: "Everyone better hope for a strong retail holiday season in Nassau County, and relatively strong sales tax revenues next year."
MISSION COMPTROL: SDS Financial Technologies president George Maragos, in the lead to become Nassau's new comptroller, denies talk that his evident success shocked him. "I worked very hard and expected a good outcome," he said Friday. "There was no guarantee of winning, I assumed that. I look forward to the opportunity of serving the community." Incumbent Howard Weitzman was ill for months, restricting his ability to campaign.
SETTING THE BAR ON LI: Hempstead lawyer Frederick K. Brewington left the panel that screens judges for the state's highest court. But he's now begun a turn on the 12-member screening committee for the Appellate Division's Second Judicial Department, including Long Island.
