Editorial: Playing pure politics in Nassau

The politics of Nassau County have become the perfect political storm: No one is acting right and everything is going wrong.

Republican legislators are clinging to an unbalanced and discredited redistricting plan for the county, at any cost, to hold on to the legislative majority for another 10 years, at any cost. Democratic legislators are willing to do anything to defeat those proposed electoral districts and get fairer lines drawn (or unfair lines tilted in their favor). So their main weapon is refusing to vote for county borrowing to pay property tax refunds. A supermajority of 13 votes (Republicans have 10 of 19 seats) is needed to allow the borrowing.

John Ciampoli, whose best credential to serve as Nassau County attorney was his proven ability to draw disingenuous districts, held a news conference Thursday to accuse the Democratic legislators of being criminals for demanding a quid pro quo. The Democrats want their political priorities taken care of in return for approving the borrowing the Republicans need for county expenses. That essentially defines all politics as crime, which isn't true, strictly speaking, even in Nassau County.

County Executive Edward Mangano, a Republican, is trying to continue his borrowing spree, but he's only identified about half of the $150 million in savings he promised he would create to justify it. The Nassau Interim Finance Authority, a state control board tasked with overseeing the county's books, has thus far let Mangano get away with this. Unfortunately, NIFA is afraid to use its only real weapon -- forbidding the borrowing and essentially shutting down the county.

And Nassau Comptroller George Maragos, at one time a vocal critic of Mangano's tendency to budget possible revenues as rock-solid certainties, has become much more supportive of the county executive's fiscal "optimism." Maragos' attitude change developed concurrently with his need to seek Republican support, anywhere and everywhere, for his U.S. Senate bid.

We'd call the current political climate in Nassau a disaster waiting to happen, but this disaster is already here.

To fix it, Maragos needs to go back to telling truths about Mangano's iffy definition of the word "balanced," when applied to budgets.

NIFA must make it clear that if Mangano can't find the cuts he promised to fix the structural deficit that now has the county $3 billion in debt, he can't borrow the $140 million he needs to keep things running.

Mangano needs to either make new deals with the unions to create the needed savings or go ahead with layoffs that do so.

Ciampoli needs to stop barking accusations and agree to draw reasonably fair electoral districts for the county's 2013 legislative races.

And Democratic legislators need to support or oppose those districts on their merits (which, right now, would still mean fighting the proposed, unfair ones), rather than mixing operational issues, like borrowing, with votes that involve extreme gerrymandering.

That's what Nassau's leaders must do to get the county back on the right path, and it's also a handy list for voters keeping score at home.