A state oversight board warned Nassau County, N.Y. legislative leaders that it will step in to impose a hiring freeze and make other cuts if changes are not made to a 2016 budget proposal.
In a Oct. 16 letter, Nassau Interim Finance Authority Chairman Jon Kaiman said a $2.95 billion fiscal plan proposed by County Executive Edward Mangano could create “a $50 million dollar hole” since it contains “risky propositions and “questionable projections.” Kaiman said NIFA is “skeptical” of Mangano’s budget plan relying on $20 million in new revenue from a planned temporary Nassau Regional Off-Track Betting casino with video lottery terminals. County legislators have voiced objections to a 1.2% property tax hike Mangano proposed in the budget plan he announced Sept. 16.
Kaiman, a former supervisor for the Town of North Hempstead, said in his letter that NIFA is creating a Strategic Planning Committee that will have power to adjust the county budget, reject nonessential spending and reject borrowing to pay bills or fund projects. Kaiman said this would result in “a hiring freeze and drastic cuts in all departments, programs and agencies that receive discretionary dollars from the county.” An additional NIFA Procurement and Contract Monitoring Committee would be tasked with reviewing contracts to see which ones are not “essential in substance and cost” and can be cut.
"We are aware of the enormity of a control board having to take on decisions that others were elected to make," Kaiman wrote in his letter. "We will explore the parameters of our authority and the extent to which we are authorized under the law to resolve the problems that presently exist when the government is unable to do so."
Mangano issued a statement in response to the NIFA letter saying, “We will closely monitor the Legislature's budget process and reserve further legislative comment until amendments are approved by the Legislature and forwarded for to me for comment."
“For five years, Nassau Republicans have cut hundreds of millions dollars in wasteful spending and have held the line on property taxes," said Nassau County Legislative Presiding Officer Norma Gonsalves, R-East Meadow. "The 2016 budget that NIFA will receive will build on these successes.”
