Mangano budget: No tax hike, 700 job cuts

Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano said Wednesday he will cut more than 700 jobs, close museums and require all employees to contribute 25 percent to their health insurance -- but will not raise property taxes to fill a projected $310 million budget gap next year.

Declaring a "fiscal crisis" in Nassau, Mangano said he will ask county and state lawmakers to enact legislation that will allow him to open existing labor contracts if unions do not make voluntary concessions. He also will seek to narrow the right of homeowners and businesses to challenge erroneous property tax assessments.

"These are tough times with tough solutions," Mangano said at a news conference in Mineola where he released highlights of his $2.63 billion budget for 2012. He will submit the plan to the county legislature Thursday.

After eliminating about 300 jobs this year, Mangano said his budget will pare another 710 positions -- reducing the county's full-time workforce to 7,400 next year. Twenty years ago, the county had 16,000 full-time employees.

Unlike this year, Mangano said police could also see pink slips -- though he would eliminate desk jobs, not street cops, as he closes some precincts.

He did not identify the job titles to be eliminated, the two precincts to be closed or the museums that will be shuttered. Those details will be released before the county legislature adopts a budget next month, he said. Likely targets are "nonrevenue generating" museums, such as Garvies Point in Glen Cove and Tackapausha in Seaford, Mangano said.

He said he patterned the requirement for employees to contribute to their health insurance costs on a deal between Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and state employees. Currently in Nassau, only nonunion employees hired after Jan. 1, 2002, are required to contribute to their health costs: individuals pay 5 percent, and families 10 percent.

Union leaders decried the Mangano proposals.

"These cuts are draconian. He's trying to scare us," said James Carver, president of the Police Benevolent Association, which represents 1,700 county police officers.

But Mangano said, "This budget is not a scare tactic. It is reality."

Without his package of cuts, property taxes would have to increase by 39 percent, Mangano said. "Our residents are at the end of their rope. Government needs to reinvent itself."

His recommendations adhere closely to an outside consultant's draft report sent to the county by a state board that controls Nassau's finances. Ronald Stack, chairman of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, declined to comment Wednesday, saying the board had yet to receive Mangano's budget.

The county legislature's leader, Presiding Officer Peter Schmitt (R-Massapequa), also declined to comment. Minority Leader Diane Yatauro (D-Glen Cove) complained that Mangano had failed to find new revenue sources besides taxes. "Mr. Mangano has surely contributed to the county's financial crisis," she said.

Union leaders said Mangano's plan will devastate services and erode public safety.

Jerry Laricchiuta, president of the Civil Service Employees Association, said that if the cuts are approved, potholes will not be fixed, 911 calls will go unanswered and parks will not be maintained.

"If they lay off 700 people, I would tell the public, 'Get the hell out off Nassau County,' " Laricchiuta said.