Nassau needs NIFA, can wait on refinancing
Members of the NIFA board (left to right) Christopher P. Wright, Chairman, Adam Barsky, Paul D. Annunziato and Paul J. on Feb. 4, 2019. Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
After months of wrangling between Nassau County Executive Laura Curran and county legislature Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello over how the county will get through the 2020 cash crunch, the two seem to have reached an agreement.
That’s nice, but the argument itself was overwrought on both sides. Nicolello’s goal of ending the existence of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority in 2026 isn’t worth achieving, and the comprehensive debt restructuring Curran deemed so necessary in 2020, which would also have extended NIFA’s existence until 2051, can be put off.
The county projects a $750 million deficit over the next two years, and hopes to partly address it by refinancing $285 million in debt payments over as many as 25 years. Curran’s original plan involved starting that this year. Nicolello’s argument was that more stimulus from Washington or a quick recovery in county sales tax could make that unnecessary.
The long-term refinancing will almost certainly happen, but Nicolello’s wait-and-see take is not illogical and the fact that the county found another solution suggests its original hurry was unnecessary.
The GOP effort to get rid of NIFA is unwise, too. The current NIFA control period is frustrating but necessary in a county that overspends on payroll, and NIFA’s existence is a boon. It can borrow money cheaper than the county, its financial assessments are apolitical, and its unelected members don’t exist on campaign contributions from special interests.
Nicolello says he objects to NIFA because it is political, and has treated Republican county executives worse than Democrats. Unfortunately, NIFA was created to bail out a county broken by overspending GOP leaders and had to take tough actions to prevent them from making Nassau’s finances immeasurably worse.
— The editorial board
