1999: Nassau's budget woes

On Dec. 3, 1999, Newsday's editorial page laid out the financial problems of Nassau County, whose woes continue to this day.

Fiscal Fiasco

After four weeks, Nassau still couldn't produce a budget. That's no way to do business.

It's been four weeks since Nassau formally passed its 2000 spending plan. Since then, everybody's been asking: Where's the budget? As of early yesterday, the county's comptroller didn't have one. Neither did the state comptroller. Ditto the legislature's independent budget office. Even on Wall Street, where county officials are being called on the carpet today to explain Nassau's financial situation, officials at some bond rating agencies complained that they had seen only summaries of the county's purported $2.1-billion spending plan.

Is Nassau on the brink of bankruptcy? Is the budget balanced? Good questions.

But as long as there is no final budget widely available for inspection - by the public and by the officials responsible for analyzing the data - taxpayers have absolutely no idea whether the county is on target or failing miserably in managing its finances.

"Even for Nassau County, with its long history of irresponsibility, this is outrageous," state Comptroller Carl McCall complained on Wednesday. He's right.

Late yesterday, county officials said budget books were being printed. That's terrific - but it doesn't change the fact that they are late. That's no way to run a government - especially one that has mishandled its finances so badly for so long.

In September, when County Executive Thomas Gulotta proposed a budget plan, he circulated some specifics. It didn't take long for the flaws to show. In October, the Republican-dominated legislature made significant changes in Gulotta's budget and passed it. They handed out a press release and promised a revised budget book, but only a few were ever distributed.

In early November, Gulotta vetoed some of the legislature's changes. And one day before Thanksgiving, Republican lawmakers threw out the budget's major new source of revenue - a real-estate transfer tax.

Now Gulotta is considering layoffs and other cutbacks. Democratic lawmakers are advocating a "budget summit" to solve the fiscal crisis, while Republican lawmakers are touting cuts they say will replace the $55 million in revenue they dropped from the budget. Nice ideas all - but wouldn't such decisions be easier if everyone were reading from the same budget book?