NIFA and Nassau are in it together

Word is that members of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority are divided on whether to take over Nassau County's finances. That's a good thing. A great thing, actually, since it is no small matter for strangers to tread on ground held by duly elected public officials.

Which is why, no matter which way NIFA goes, transparency will be essential.

Should NIFA decide to become a control board - with the ability to freeze wages and deny the county the ability to borrow - the county will change in an instant, with everything from public services to employee morale in the crosshairs.

If NIFA decides to hold back, giving Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and the Legislature (is it too much to ask eternally battling Republicans and Democratic lawmakers to work together in a fiscal crisis, for goodness sake?) time to strut their budget-remedying stuff, the result likely won't be much different.

For Nassau to survive, it must change the way it does business. It must build a new relationship with its unions. It must inventory, and ultimately kill, some services. Elected officials must do whatever they reasonably and responsibly can do to bridge the nagging gap between revenues and expenses this year and beyond.

If they do not, or cannot, it will become NIFA's job to step in and do so quickly enough to keep Wall Street - which during the last crisis in the late 1990s knocked the county's bond rating to near-junk status - from wielding its cudgel.

But NIFA, early on, would have a job, too.

It should be as open as reasonably possible in explaining its decision to take over - though that's a tall order, given presiding officer Peter Schmitt's intention to sue if the board assumes control.

The board would have to communicate openly and completely with Nassau residents, letting them know what is happening - and even more important, the whys behind any decision board members ultimately make.

It shouldn't stop there.

As of now, NIFA members are awaiting an analysis and briefing from an accounting firm, which has gathered all that Nassau County officials handed over to convince NIFA that the county's 2011 budget is balanced.

Balance isn't the real issue, however, no matter what NIFA's enabling legislation - which allows a takeover if Nassau's operating budget is 1 percent out of whack, or in imminent danger of reaching the threshold - says.

It's whether Mangano and the Republican-majority legislature can manage a mess, and whether they can stabilize a fragile budget while removing obstacles enough to nurse county finances back to health.

It is no small job, which is probably why some NIFA members, privately at least, are ready to lower the boom, though others remain undecided. Too many county revenues for 2011 remain soft, although Nassau is seeing an unanticipated boost in sales tax revenues.

NIFA and Nassau's elected officials, whether they like it or not, are partners. And that will remain true no matter what NIFA ultimately decides, no matter how many lawsuits Schmitt files. Although the board can assume power over finances, it cannot dictate policy: NIFA cannot impose a tax increase, for instance; it cannot shutter county departments.

That would be left to county officials, the ones Nassau residents elected in the first place.