Voters should hear Nassau plans
The deadline to pass a budget is fast approaching and Nassau County doesn't appear to be one bit closer to repairing its financial catastrophe than it was six months ago. In many ways, in fact, solutions seem to be receding into the distance.
The deficit for 2012 is projected to be at least $300 million, and the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, the state control board overseeing county finances, won't let that large a shortfall stand; nor should it. Each time Nassau Executive Edward Mangano tries to show strength to the police unions, he looks weaker. And both the county legislature, which must vote on a final budget, and the voters, who have a right to know what changes are being considered in the services they count on, have little of that information.
Wednesday, Acting Police Commissioner Thomas Krumpter presented the legislature with the precinct reorganization, closures and related staff reductions Mangano says will provide a significant portion of the savings he needs. But 19 days before the 2012 budget must pass and 27 days before voters, with strong feelings about the closures, will cast ballots for their legislators, Krumpter didn't say which two of the county's eight precincts are targeted.
And somehow, Mangano's hard line on the layoffs he would push through morphed into reducing slots via retirement, cops quitting and the elimination of already vacant positions.
Mangano's other attempt to establish some leverage was his claim that he would get the Nassau legislature to pass a law saying the county's dire situation allows it to reopen collective bargaining agreements. Thus far, Mangano hasn't introduced the bill, and legislators on the campaign trail are saying they will vote against it. Better still, he's given the unions an opening to rage, as they are planning to do at a rally on Monday, that Nassau is the new Wisconsin of union busting.
The precincts were laid out nearly 40 years ago, so a reorganization that includes closures may be wise. It's hard to say, though, because no one has explained how the process will unfold.
Ditto Long Island Bus. We're told the system will be run by a private company starting in less than three months, but not whether fares and routes will be guaranteed past the first year, or dramatically altered. Ditto the plan to build a new coliseum for the Islanders at the Hub with taxpayer money. Though this page favored the plan, voters were unwilling to authorize $400 million in borrowing with few details on how the financing would work. Mangano's proposed 2012 budget is based on so many iffy income streams and unlikely savings that even if it passes the legislature, NIFA won't approve it. The oversight board has essentially said as much.
Getting NIFA's approval for the plan doesn't even seem to be Mangano's aim. Instead, he is acquiescing to the demands of incumbents on the legislature not to get them in hot water before Election Day. The deadline for a budget vote is Oct. 30, and Mangano has 10 days after that to sign it. During that period, Election Day will dawn with the public still in the dark. That's weak and evasive, and it's exactly the wrong formula for nursing Nassau back to fiscal health.
