NIFA won't solve Nassau's problems

Edward P. Mangano is the Nassau County executive.

I am frequently asked if the actions of the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority, which recently initiated a control period over county finances, are politically motivated. While I am concerned that NIFA is a partisan board, I am alarmed that the architects of Nassau's budget mess are now acting as its watchdog.

The NIFA board - which is composed of unaccountable individuals appointed by state politicians - includes the former vice chairman of the Democratic Party and the political campaign treasurer for the former Democratic presiding officer of Nassau County. The Republican member is former County Executive Tom Suozzi's budget director.

NIFA sat idle for many years as the then-county executive increased property taxes, spent lavishly, and negotiated unaffordable labor contracts that have driven Nassau into a fiscal abyss. It suddenly awoke in January 2010, when I took office. Rather than work with me to close the $133-million budget deficit I inherited from my predecessor, NIFA provided critiques - no suggestions. Without its assistance, I turned Nassau's 2010 budget deficit into a surplus, while keeping my pledge not to raise property taxes.

Still, just 24 days into my first budget, NIFA issued a control period over county finances. This unfounded and unfair act has many residents questioning the board's motives and its inability to partner with the county to fix Nassau's problems over the past decade. In fact, one NIFA board member was quoted in Newsday in December, saying, "There is no way we could partner with [Mangano] or anybody else because we don't have the authority to do that."

So, what authority does NIFA have to protect taxpayers? The most helpful thing it can do is to freeze wages for county workers.

Yet, on day one of the control period, NIFA announced it would not freeze wages for county workers. That's unfortunate - this inaction leads many to believe that NIFA has an agenda that isn't in residents' best interests. NIFA has stated, time and again, that it is looking for higher revenue. Where I come from, higher revenue is a code name for higher property taxes.

Let me be clear: I will not allow property tax hikes to be the solution to Nassau's problems. We have come too far - from repealing the home energy tax to stopping a 16.5 percent property tax hike that the former county executive included in his multiyear plan for 2011-14 - to allow NIFA to take us backward.

And that is why I filed a lawsuit last month on behalf of taxpayers. The suit is aimed at preventing NIFA's unwarranted takeover, and it's an essential action to protect homeowners and employers from higher property taxes.

Nassau County residents cannot be victim to an unelected board that appears to be seeking higher property taxes. The stakes are too high. After all, we already pay the second-highest property taxes in the nation. NIFA's actions have simply created a distraction from the real work that needs to get done.

The legislature and I will continue to move forward with reductions to the size of county government. Although we saved taxpayers $55 million by reducing the workforce to its lowest level since the 1950s, more savings must be achieved. Nassau County's labor contracts are simply unaffordable.

While the legislature passed a balanced budget for 2011, budgets for 2012 and beyond will not be balanced unless Nassau's costly, entitlement-laden labor contracts are reined in. Since I refuse to raise property taxes by a penny more, Nassau's public employee unions face three options: voluntary concessions, forced concessions through the passage of legislation, or layoffs.

The residents of Nassau County put their trust in me to lead this government, and they deserve nothing less. The legislature and I will continue, through these trying times, to make the tough decisions needed to return this county to greatness. We will not back down or give up. We will continue to fight for the taxpayers of Nassau County.