Nassau County Executive Laura Curran targets Nassau Republicans in mailer

Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, in a taxpayer-funded postcard, is urging residents to phone Republican county legislators to ask them to pass a bill to phase in her reassessment over five years.

“We need our Republican legislators to quit stalling and pass the taxpayer protection plan!” Curran says in the blue-and-orange mailer sent to 465,000 households.

The mailer cost $99,467. Last May, the administration paid $91,518 to send out a similar batch of 465,000 postcards.

Curran campaigned against taxpayer-funded mailers when she ran for county executive in 2017, and has prohibited her name from appearing on county signs.

During the campaign, Curran held a news conference outside her home and said: “Let’s stop pretending that distributing useless information in self congratulatory mailers is a critical function of honest government. It’s not … And those that fill up our mailbox know exactly what they’re doing. They know they are campaigning on the taxpayer’s dime.”

Curran said politicians' names should appear only once on mailers.

In the new mailer, her name appears four times.

Chris Boyle, spokesman for the GOP legislative caucus, said “after campaigning against government funded political mailers, Laura Curran has again sent out a completely political mailer.”

Curran, who faces reelection in 2021, said in a statement:

“Republican lawmakers are about to shamelessly slam more than half of Nassau County taxpayers with over $300 million in taxes, so you better believe I mailed out a postcard that asks residents to speak up and urge passage of this critical legislation being held by legislators for selfish political gain. The money spent educating property owners is a drop in the bucket compared to the costs borne by communities all across Nassau County if this legislation fails to pass.”

By Scott Eidler

scott.eidler@newsday.com@ScottEidler

Scott Eidler covers Nassau County government and politics for Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.