Nassau's GOP leadership declares war on NIFA

The Republican leadership of Nassau County has declared an all-out war on the Nassau Interim Finance Authority.

And should NIFA, a state oversight board made up of Republicans, Democrats and one independent member, decide to take over the county's finances after Jan. 20, according to one Nassau official, the county will go to court to fight the action.

"This has gotten to the point of ridiculousness as far as I am concerned," Peter Schmitt, majority leader of the county legislature, said in an interview Monday.

"If they decide on Jan. 20 to take over," Schmitt said, "we will sue because if they take over, it will be an illegal move."

County Executive Edward Mangano - in stark contrast to some of his earlier, conciliatory remarks about NIFA - was just as defiant in a separate interview.

"We have worked hard and we have had success and there is no recognition of that," he said. "There is a double standard at work here."

The remarks from Mangano and Schmitt fit the strategic narrative that Nassau Republicans, as far back as election night, began rolling out in anticipation of any NIFA action.

The kernel of the argument is that Mangano, like his predecessor, Thomas Suozzi, should be allowed to manage Nassau's budget in any way he sees fit.

But there are other factors at work, too.

For one, a control board - like similar boards in New York City and other municipalities - likely would blunt, if not kill, Mangano's chance at re-election.

And having a state-appointed fiscal babysitter for one of the richest counties in the nation also could prove politically embarrassing to fellow county Republicans, including Dean Skelos of Rockville Centre, majority leader of the state Senate, and Joseph Mondello, the county's Republican leader, whose organization racked up an impressive string of wins in November.

On Dec. 30, NIFA's board, after hearing from Mangano, decided to give the county until Jan. 20 to provide additional details on more than $200 million in contingency plans that Nassau would put into place should the county's 2011 budget - which is soft on revenues - begin to collapse.

Mangano said, "They have asked for an unprecedented amount of detail on the contingencies." He said that some of the requests for information had been answered by the county earlier.

And, he said, that there have been demands for other information, such as the RFPs - requests for proposals - Nassau hass received for Long Island Bus, that the county will not give NIFA unless authority members agree to sign confidentiality agreements.

"That's the law," Mangano said, "and we're going to follow the law."

Schmitt said the county also would follow the law if NIFA decides to take over.

"You've got the county executive, the majority in the legislature and the county comptroller saying the budget is balanced," Schmitt said.

"There is nothing out of balance and the at-risk revenues have contingencies," Mangano said. "There is no reason for them to do anything."

Ronald Stack, NIFA's chairman, declined to comment Monday. But on Thursday, he and other NIFA board members disagreed with Mangano and Schmitt, saying that the budget was in trouble and, according to one board member, George Marlin, that Nassau's leadership was misleading residents by asserting otherwise.

No matter the narrative, it's the budget numbers that ought to tell the tale. And just because Suozzi managed budgets that took Nassau in the wrong direction - union contracts that give Mangano little wiggle room for negotiation and liberal borrowing for property tax refunds - doesn't mean Mangano ought to willingly tread the same path.

"There's a difference," Mangano said when I ran that by him. "I have made structural changes that will make it easier in 2012."

He also said that he is working to give NIFA everything it needs. "I am trying to be respectful," Mangano said, noting that he has also told NIFA that he would come to them if he needed help. ". . . I don't close any doors, but I don't open them if there's no reason to open them."

But NIFA - which was supported by Mangano and Schmitt, who, along with other Nassau legislators, signed off on a home rule message requesting the authority a decade ago - doesn't need Nassau's permission to take fiscal control. And a lawsuit against a state-created authority would pit Nassau against New York State at a time when the county could use state help.

Nonetheless, Nassau's leadership has tossed down the gauntlet.

Come Jan. 20, let's see where it lands.