Henican: When borrowing goes bad

What's another half-billion among friends?

With Nassau County proposing to borrow a fresh $450 million to pay for certain expenses, perhaps it's time for a brief budget-theory review.

Wait. Stick with me here. I know budgets can be boring. And budgetary theory sounds even worse. But to paraphrase what Pericles said about politics and Leon Trotsky said about war, "You may not be interested in budgets, but budgets are interested in you."

Debt is not always a bad thing. It allows us to buy stuff we can't afford to pay cash for and spread the payments into the future.

I didn't pay cash for my home, and I'm hoping to live there for many years to come. That last part is key: Borrowing for long-term governmental projects -- building roads, laying sewers, maybe even constructing sports stadiums now and then -- can make fiscal sense if it's done with thought and diligence.

But borrowing just to get the county balance sheet through the day, the week or the year? Any budget expert will tell you that's almost always a bad idea.

Four years later, the money will all be gone, spent on court judgments, tax refunds and who knows what else. The county will have nothing permanent to show -- no new roads, no new sewers, not even a new stadium. And on into the future, those bond payments will keep coming due, pinching future taxpayers and requiring even deeper cuts.

No wonder the seven members of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, the county's fiscal baby-sitter, seemed to hold their noses while voting to approve Ed Mangano's 2012 budget and that fresh $450-million hole.

Even the five voting yes appeared to understand: New York's wealthiest county was delaying the tough stuff again.

ONLY MONEY:

1. Robbing Plandome to pay Port Washington.

2. $450 million for your thoughts.

3. Taxpayer money makes the world go 'round.

4. Neither a Mangano nor a Suozzi be.

5. Laughing all the way to the County Office Building in Mineola.

ASKED AND UNANSWERED: Would YOU lend Nassau County $450 million? Is alarmist real-estate analyst Keith Jurow being way too negative -- or just telling hard truth -- when he calls the LI housing market "a disaster waiting to happen?" Writes Jurow: "Nearly everyone who bought since the summer of 2003 owns a home worth less than they paid for it. My sense is that many of them have no idea." . . . What's a hungry 7-foot, 305-pounder eat for lunch in Greenvale? Pizza AND spaghetti AND meatballs at Abeetza Pizza, if his nickname's Shaq . . . When was the last time you got to say happy birthday to someone who just turned 106? So join my "many happy returns" to Martha Lewis of Port Jefferson Station (via Germany, Russia, Japan, Canada, Washington Heights and Port Jefferson). Why stop now, Mrs. L?

THE NEWS IN SONG: Never enough: "Money (That's What I Want)," The Flying Lizards, tinyurl.com/justgimme.

LONG ISLANDER OF THE WEEK: Ray Bertolino

Personal, thoughtful, unscripted conversation -- it's the rarest thing on modern radio. Far from the AM shouters and the FM morning zoos, Ray Bertolino has conducted hundreds of his civilized "Conversations" on Nassau Community College's WHPC / 90.3 FM (online at ncc.edu/whpc). A Muttontown native and Mineola resident known for his probing interview style and old-fashioned patience, Bertolino has hosted an amazingly diverse guest lineup: Novelist Nelson DeMille, songwriter Jimmy Webb, adman Jerry Della Femina, sportscasting legend Bob Wolff, pop star Neil Sedaka, talk host Dick Cavett and, this week (Sunday at 10 p.m., Monday at 12:30 p.m., Tuesday at 4 p.m.), cabaret icon Michael Feinstein. No matter how famous, they all understand: Smart conversation's a rare commodity on the radio.

Email ellis@henican.com

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