Nassau fee hikes: GOP lawmakers may strip them from ‘18 budget

Leaders of the Nassau legislature’s Republican majority have indicated strongly that they may strip $59 million in fee increases from County Executive Edward Mangano’s 2018 budget.

While discussing a procedural motion to advance items in Mangano’s $2.99 billion spending plan on Monday, Presiding Officer Norma Gonsalves (R-East Meadow) said “the fees may not be in the [final] budget” approved by the legislature.

Gonsalves did not identify how she would make up the lost fee revenue, and did not respond to a request for comment later.

Lawmakers have until Oct. 30 — a week before Election Day — to amend the budget.

Mangano, a Republican who isn’t seeking re-election, has proposed raising $35 million for the police department by increasing the $55 “public safety fee” tacked onto traffic and red-light camera tickets, adopted last year. He is leaving it to legislators to determine the exact amount.

To raise another $23.6 million, Mangano wants to increase fees to access information on tax map parcels used in land document recording from $355 to $455 and hike block fees for land recording transactions from $300 to $400.

Acting Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder, testifying Monday on his department’s $893.7 million budget, said he was not consulted by the Office of Management and Budget about the public safety fee increase.

However, Ryder said the revenue is needed to cover increases in police salaries, benefits, contractual services and debt service costs. Without the fee revenue, popular programs such as problem oriented policing, or POP cops, could be cut, Ryder said.

“I don’t know where that money goes directly,” Ryder said of the fee revenue. “I just know that we are responsible for keeping the roads safe.”

Auto accidents, he said, are down nearly 5 percent, while summonses are up by 10 percent for moving violations and 12 percent for parking tickets.

Last year, Republican legislators initially approved the 2017 budget without acting on public safety fee increases that Mangano had proposed. Ultimately they reduced the new fee from $105 to $55 on traffic and red-light camera tickets, and eliminated it for parking tickets.

Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams (D-Freeport) called the latest fee hikes a “money grab” and said the administration had yet to show the revenue will be used to improve public safety.

Eric Naughton, deputy county executive for finance, said it was the legislature’s “prerogative to change the budget. We will await their amendments.”

Alec Slatky, a policy liaison with AAA Northeast, said the fee “should be considered a tax” because its amount “does not have a particular connection to public safety.”

During his testimony, Ryder told lawmakers that despite 160 retirements to date in 2017, overtime, initially budgeted or 2017 at $55 million, will come in at least $5 million under budget.

“We are reorganizing and reshuffling the deck,” Ryder said of staffing and management changes. “We are moving the pieces to fill the holes so we do not create overtime.”

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com,paul.larocco@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert,

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.