Mangano cuts funds to planning council

Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano is moving to cut $200,000 from the Long Island Regional Planning Council as part of an effort to close the county's budget deficit, officials said Wednesday.

Officials of the bi-county planning agency said that would amount to 40 percent of its $500,000 budget, and would leave them scrambling to try to make up the difference, its chairman said Wednesday.

The cut to the advisory panel of town and government leaders and business and nonprofit representatives, was included in the $121 million in reductions that Mangano announced Wednesday to satisfy concerns raised by the Nassau Interim Finance Authority.

"The county executive believes the taxpayers are not getting a return from their investment and that's why the funding was terminated," said Mangano's spokeswoman, Katie Grilli-Robles. She called the regional planning council a "redundant service," noting the county has its own planning commission.

"We had to make tough decisions and this was one of them," she said.

The council, which has existed since 1965 and has a three-person staff, traditionally receives funding from both Nassau and Suffolk.

John Cameron, the regional planning council's chairman, said he had talked with Mangano Tuesday and was aware funding for the council was under review. But Cameron said he did not know the decision was final.

Cameron said Grilli-Robles' statement ran "counter to any dialogue and conversations we've had with any county official to date." Cameron said he understood the "dire straits" the county faces, "but that does not obviate the benefits and importance of that strategic planning" for Long Island and the advocacy work the council does, Cameron said.

"If we can't secure additional funding from other sources, it would definitely have an impact on staffing."

With Sid Cassese