Nassau budget problem needs game-changer

The quickest way to resolve Nassau County's nagging budget gap is to call it what it is: a fiscal emergency.

A formal declaration would be a game changer that would require a new way of attacking the county's ills. No more short-term, politically expedient thinking. Everything from working with unions to reshape contracts to sorting necessary services from luxury ones would happen on new turf.

As it is, Nassau's nibbling at the edges of declaring a crisis. Last week came word of a draft consultant's report, which provided a dispassionate view of county operations and how County Executive Edward Mangano could eviscerate them.

The top recommendations of the Grant Thornton draft report? Cut personnel costs. Gain significant union concessions.

Well, duh. County executives dating back to Thomas Gulotta during the 1980s have been trying to do just that.

The report recommended moves such as jettisoning county museums. Apparently county property owners -- who still would be paying some of the highest taxes in the nation even if Mangano accepted every single one of the consultant's recommendations -- can't afford such frippery any more.

The report takes a glancing look at county operations (at least the departments that agreed to talk to the consultants). Mangano does not have enough deputies to handle the county's business, for example, the report says -- a point made months ago by fellow Republicans who have begged Mangano to bring in more expertise.

On the fiscal side, the report essentially recommends that Mangano take a scorched-earth approach to righting county finances. The recommendations would work -- if Mangano was playing a video game.

Blam! No more museums. Blam! No more mounted police. Blam! No more unnecessary services for veterans and the elderly.

If only it were that easy.

Mangano, however, has to work in the real world, grappling with expectations of residents who want good services with no property tax increases; with lawmakers facing re-election fights in November; and with his own political future.

He could take it upon himself to declare a formal fiscal emergency. But that would put Nassau into the hands of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, the state control board already overseeing county finances.

He could ask NIFA to make the declaration. Or NIFA could do it on its own.

But does NIFA, a creation of New York State, have the staffing, or the desire to do the job?

Some Republicans are bouncing about a potential third possibility: Use the consultant's report as justification for a request to the state Legislature for a law that would open Nassau's union contracts.

In theory, the idea -- if it worked, and, again, experts are skeptical -- would free Mangano of salary and other terms of standing union-county agreements.

On Thursday, Mangano is slated to release his proposed budget for 2012. It's likely the plan will echo the scorched-earth approach of the consultant's report.

Still, saying and doing are two different things -- and so far, nothing's done the trick, even for the current budget year. The consultant estimated that Nassau could have a $200-million-plus gap by year's end.

Mangano's already considering firing more employees, and doing whatever he can to make things work. But Nassau's fiscal problems are structural. And they run so deep that even the most skillful nip and tuck won't resolve them.

Nassau is, again, sliding slowly toward a fiscal abyss.

Scorched earth won't fix it. It's time for something new.