Mangano: Nassau had year-end $17M surplus

Nassau County, which is battling with a state watchdog agency over control of its finances, ended the 2010 fiscal year with a surplus of $17.2 million, County Executive Edward Mangano said Thursday.

The county has cut expenses and reduced "the size of government to the lowest levels since the 1950s. . . . We have put this county on a diet, and it's working," Mangano said at a Mineola news conference.

The announcement came as the administration awaited a court decision on whether the Nassau Interim Finance Authority can proceed with a control period that its board approved in January.

NIFA took over Nassau's finances in January, saying the county's budget for 2011 has a $176-million deficit. Mangano, who maintains that the budget is balanced, has filed a legal challenge in State Supreme Court.

County Comptroller George Maragos, who supplied the 2010 data released Thursday, said that the surplus would be placed in the county's fund balance -- a sort of reserve the administration has said it could tap this year if necessary -- bringing it to a total of $81 million.

Maragos also said Mangano had reduced Nassau's structural deficit from $251.6 million in 2009 to $131.6 million. Mangano, a Republican, said he had inherited a $132.2-million deficit last year from the administration of Democratic County Executive Thomas Suozzi.

Suozzi, when reached, said he had no comment.

However, legislative Minority Leader Diane Yatauro (D-Glen Cove), said: "Mr. Mangano seems to change his view of the county's financial condition as if it was the weather. One day he says he needs labor concessions and is exploring a sales tax increase. The next day he says everything is fine.

"We are currently embroiled in a legal battle concerning NIFA," Yatauro said. "It escapes me how he can possibly maintain that the county's financial outlook is anything but ominous."