Timing of NIFA takeover key for Mangano

Nassau Executive Edward Mangano confronts a challenge in managing the political game clock as it ticks down on his first year in office.

Let's say a state-created monitor takes over troubled county finances soon, as some anticipate. Strategically, it could still be early enough for Mangano - the GOP's underdog winner of 2009 - to blame his predecessor for the mess that would have produced this government-style receivership.

Regardless of what he's done or failed to do, the former Bethpage legislator can accurately say for just a little while longer that he's been in only one year, after Democrat Tom Suozzi was there for eight.

After all, whatever the fiscal merits, pols who unseat other pols get to condemn what they inherited for about a year, maybe two.

After that, Mangano takes full ownership of the problems in the wider world of perception.

Mangano has a clear incentive to talk as his aides did this week about "partnering" with the six-member Nassau Interim Finance Authority "if the unions won't provide concessions voluntarily."

"Partnering" isn't a formal option, however, said a knowledgeable source. Either the authority seizes control, based on the budget being out of balance, or it does not. "NIFA is an oversight board. If the budget is balanced as [Deputy County Executive] Tim Sullivan says, then what do you need help for?"

"You can't be on both sides of the fence. NIFA is authorized to [impose] a control period, whether it's a week, a month, two days. Its job is not to sit down with Mangano and talk to the unions," the source said.

"This situation will get worse with time," added a Mangano-friendly analyst who declined to be identified. "Ed should be inviting NIFA in now, sit with NIFA and the unions and make a deal, in a control period."

If that happens, and NIFA exercises authority to freeze labor contracts, the Mangano camp might be able to tell the story that the administration guided the county out of a control period toward stability.

Some say, meanwhile, that if the labor unions are to take a hit, their leaders will only want to do so once - not first to the county and then to NIFA. A double dose of big givebacks could wreak havoc on union leaders, who are, of course, elected by their members.

For the moment, at least, expect the incoming governor, Andrew Cuomo, and leaders of the State Legislature to keep some public distance from the Nassau fray. One Cuomo insider suggested last week, "Nassau has the tools it needs to solve its problems." Another said, "We'll just have to see what [plan] they come out with."

There is an interesting legal issue that could be tested: When exactly does a budget fall out of balance? As for potential litigation involving NIFA, county attorney John Ciampoli would only say Wednesday that his office "stands ready to react to any action taken by NIFA as the county executive may direct."

Given the general fiscal hurdles of local governments these days, NIFA's role - carved out in the county's 1999 crisis - adds a set of questions, and options, not found elsewhere.