It's useless to point fingers on Nassau's finances

Nassau County's finances are in bad shape.

Wicked bad shape.

And no amount of finger-pointing and political posturing can change that.

For months now, Republicans and Democrats in the county have been jab, jab, jabbing each other, trying to pin the blame for what is fast becoming a financial crisis.

Republicans - comptroller George Maragos and GOP lawmakers, who are the majority in the legislature - say it's former County Executive Thomas Suozzi's fault.

Democratic lawmakers counter that Nassau, under Suozzi's leadership, had myriad increases in the county's Wall Street bond rating.

And now, Republican fingers are contorting - think Spock - to point in two directions at once. At Democrats, who led the county for 10 years. And at the Democrat-dominated Nassau Interim Finance Authority, which, until two years ago, had the authority to turn thumbs up or thumbs down on the county's budget proposals.

Maragos attacked NIFA in a six-month update on the county budget released Monday. Irony alert: Maragos campaigned in part on the notion that Suozzi and Democratic lawmakers had ignored NIFA's sage budget warnings.

Meanwhile, Peter Schmitt, the legislature's presiding officer, is squaring off against NIFA, alleging that its chairman, Ronald Stack, and a member, Leonard Steinman, have potential conflicts of interest.

All together, it's becoming more and more like the circus, only better because there are many more than three rings.

Enough.

At this point, it's not who's to blame but where's the fix?

Eight months into his term, County Executive Edward Mangano's got a herculean task ahead. So far, he's doing what he can, including offering incentives for higher-paid county employees to retire.

But the county's leadership also is treading on ground both tricky and dangerous.

It's borrowing, big time.

Those retirements? The county plans on bonding out the cost, which means taxpayers will pay and keep paying. Last year, the county borrowed about $100 million in such costs; it's expected to add another $100 million this year.

But Nassau also is borrowing to pay for successful property tax challenges. Back when NIFA was created, the county borrowed $100 million to settle tax certiorari cases; with this year, Nassau will go full circle, by borrowing some $100 million more.

In short, Nassau's fiscal shape is almost as poor as it was when former County Executive Thomas Gulotta, a Republican, was in office. That crisis created NIFA, and the state under then-Gov. George Pataki provided funds to help Nassau turn things around.

This time, there will be no bailout from fiscally squeezed New York State. And although Suozzi, at the beginning of his time in office, helped build the county's once-enviable reserves, he left hardly any of so-called rainy day funds for Mangano.

Which makes finances Mangano's Job One.

Yet, the political infighting goes on. And so do news releases with headlines that ought to make residents queasy.

"Nassau Projected to Finish 2010 Fiscal Year with Balanced Budget," read the one from Marago's office.

Well, duh.

State law, as the report itself notes, requires balanced budgets. What it doesn't require is that Nassau borrow and keep borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars to essentially stay in place.

Something's got to change. And maybe it will. But only when elected officials put as much effort into fixing as they do fighting.