Mangano Reflects on First Year as Nassau Executive

Before taking office one year ago, I knew Nassau County was in bad shape. I just didn’t know how bad things actually were until I became County Executive in January 2010. 

Our residents were paying the second highest property taxes in the nation, funding unaffordable union contracts, all while the County’s infrastructure crumbled in our parks, sewage treatment facilities and even at our 911 call center.  Clearly, these problems were not created overnight. Although I would much rather put politics aside, I must respond to the distortions and misleading information spread by Democrat Legislator Diane Yataruo. 

The truth remains that former County Executive Tom Suozzi and the Democrat Legislature, led by Legislator Yatauro, allowed these problems to grow over the past decade. They simply spent too much, taxed too high and reformed too little.  Now, they are trying to hide from the past with smoke screen letters in the newspaper.

Nassau families and seniors placed faith in me to clean up our County’s mismanaged government and rein in taxes. That’s exactly what I’ve done. I eliminated the home energy tax paid by residents each month on their LIPA or National Grid bills. Legislator Yatauro whines about the loss of this revenue because it starves her lavish spending habits. Residents needed tax relief and I delivered. Legislator Yatauro also fails to mention that I eliminated a 16.5 percent property tax hike planned by former County Executive Suozzi and approved by her in the County’s Multi-Year Plan. Again, I am starving government and protecting taxpayers.

As Legislator Yatuaro mentions, every municipality in America is facing a difficult situation. The poor economy along with bad decisions of the past, have placed Nassau County in rough financial shape. While one credit rating agency might be bearish, two major Wall Street credit rating agencies gave the County a “stable outlook” after reviewing my actions to reduce spending and reform government.

Although Legislator Yatuaro refused to acknowledge it, now is the time for bi-partnership and to put politics aside.

To add some context to Nassau’s financial problems, a review of my first year in office is necessary. In 2010, I inherited a $133 million deficit. To address this, I cut spending, trimmed the workforce to the lowest level since the 1950s, restructured and consolidated departments, cut the structural budget gap by 30 percent, stopped the growth in spending, and reduced borrowing to a fraction of what it had been. The result: we eliminated the budget deficit and finished 2010 with a surplus… as well as with a $65 million unreserved fund balance.

The Republican Legislative Majority and I implemented real structural reforms to the County’s broken assessment system which wastes $250 million of your money annually. Legislator Yatauro and her Democrat colleagues opposed these reforms because their political donors will suffer while taxpayers benefit. The reforms ensure home assessments are frozen for four years and your hard earned tax dollars are no longer wasted on lawyers. This plan will end, once and for all, the practice of borrowing millions against our children’s future.

The Republican Legislative Majority and I also adopted a 2011 budget that is balanced without a property tax increase… and we did it without the fiscal gimmicks used in the past. While the 2011 budget is balanced, the budgets for 2012 and beyond will not be balanced unless we can  Tom Suozzi negotiated without providing clear financial implications to the Legislature.

Nassau County employees are competent, hard-working people who provide important services to the county and to our residents. At a time when private-sector unemployment is high and over 7,100 homes in Nassau are under foreclosure, it is not fair for Nassau’s public-sector employees to be immune from layoffs or for private sector individuals and families to be the ones making all the sacrifices. It is also not fair to ask Nassau taxpayers to pay even higher taxes than they are now.

The only reasonable and responsible solution is to restructure the county labor contracts that are currently threatening Nassau’s future fiscal stability.

Fortunately, I have been successful in negotiating concessions with the County’s labor unions. Just this week, the County’s largest labor union signed a deal that restructures salaries, eliminates some benefits and saves taxpayers $70 million over the life of the contract. Negotiations will continue with the County’s four remaining unions. If negotiations prove successful, taxpayers will save tens of millions more. If negotiations fail, the County Legislature will consider passing my Taxpayer Relief Act which legally empowers me to reopen the labor contracts to order cuts. If this Act fails, I will be forced to lay off workers.

Hopefully Nassau’s public employee unions will do the right thing and agree to renegotiate their contracts without my having to use the authority I’m seeking in the Taxpayer Relief Act. In fact, I have no doubt that more are willing to do so.

In addition, I am pursuing every vehicle for curbing Nassau’s out-of-control entitlement costs. This includes partnering with Governor Andrew Cuomo as he works to cut Medicaid spending, requiring workfare for welfare recipients and cap property taxes to starve the system.

While we have made major strides to fix Nassau’s finances and protect taxpayers, there is still more to do and I won’t stop until the work is done.