Democratic Nassau County legislators presented $310 million in budget cuts on Tuesday in response to Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano’s plans to fix the 2012 budget’s projected deficit, and called for restoring monies to save two Nassau County Police precincts and funding for Long Island Bus.
The Democrats’ proposed budget amendments would restore $15 million to preserve existing Nassau County Police Departments precincts and $6.7 million to Long Island Bus, increasing its budget line to $9.2 million. The total additional expenses proposed by the Democrats are $25.67 million, with prospective reductions of $310.6 million.
“It’s time for the politics to step aside. And it’s time for us to come together,” said Nassau County Legislator Wayne Wink (D-Roslyn), adding the legislature needed “to deal with the cuts in a way that is fair and more straightforward.”
The Democratic minority, represented at a Tuesday press conference, included Wink, David Denenberg (D-Merrick), Judy Jacobs (D-Woodbury) and Kevan Abrahams (D-Hempstead).
“We need a ‘protect-the-people’ budget,” Denenberg said. “[The Republicans] have talked the talk. They certainly have not walked the walk,” he added.
They also proposed a fund balance transfer of $56 million also intended to help maintain the eight Nassau County Police Department precincts as is. The proposed closure of two precincts would result in layoffs of approximately 80 police officers, Denenberg said.
Saving the precincts is part of the Democrats alternative Mangano’s plan to cut 700 county jobs in an effort to save $110 million as one route to balancing his proposed $2.6 billion 2012 budget. Mangano has also proposed $12 million in cuts for the departments of health, social services and human services.
“We need to have serious discussions about what services people need and expect from county government,” Nassau County Legislator Judi Bosworth (D-Great Neck) said in a press release. ” However, we need to make sure our public safety is not compromised. By closing two police precincts, eliminating the POP (problem oriented police) officers and dissolving the heroin task force, we are embarking on a plan that does just that. Actions cannot be taken that will impact on our sense of safety in our homes, in our shopping centers and in our communities.”
Wink and Nassau Legislator David Denenberg (D-Merrick) said they are planning to push an assessment reform bill originally introduced in April 2009 to accelerate the timetable for the Assessment Reform Commission to resolve commercial property tax assessment appeals by September instead of April. That would result in a savings of $62.5 million, according to the legislators.
“We believe we can achieve significant savings in our assessment system if we conduct a substantive review of each challenge,” Winks said, adding that thorough reviews of each case would reduce the number of “recidivist” challenges that recur each year.
“What has taken place up to now has been posturing,” Wink said.
Among the biggest single cost-savings items the Democrats proposed is “shared sacrifice labor savings” of $40 million, with work to be apportioned equally among appointed employees, ordinance employees, contractual employees, non-union and union employees.
“We’re open to areas of negotiations on this,” Winks said.
A proposed Nassau Accountability Act would seek to streamline county operations by promoting energy efficiency in county facilities, reducing use of paper, and eliminate duplicate and unused software licenses to realize an estimated $23 million saving.
Democratic legislators also called for eliminating $5 million in multiple deputy commissioners in the county Departments of Public Works, Recreations and Museums. They also pointed to reducing the number of IT deputy commissioners from four to one for a savings of $250,706 and fringe benefits of more than $100,000
Abrahams said the Democrats are “committed to putting back transparency” to the budget process.
“We are going to be honest brokers,” he said.
Abrahams called for reducing outside counsel contracts on the county’s suit against the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, which he called a “slush fund,” from $5 million to $500,000. That includes payments to Rivkin Radler, Mangano’s former law firm.
Their list of proposed cuts also included cutting salaries of staff positions in Mangano’s office by $539,167 along with fringe benefits of $215,666.80 for his office.
Other cuts proposed by the Democrats include:
• Elimination of MTA station maintenance, a projected $28.1 million saving
• Obtaining state funds to support the second phase of the red light camera program ($18 million)
• Absentee landlord surcharge assessment of $10.9 million
• Reforming the Sheriff’s Department to collect backlog on warrants ($5 million)
• Reducing outsourcing of IT application development positions to outside contractors to save $3 million
• A $1 million cut in contractual services to the parks department
• Cutting $1 million from general expenses in the Office of Constituent Affairs – including “political mailings” by Mangano
• Reduction of salaries supporting preparation of “expensive and wasteful mailings” for a $500,000 savings
• Eliminating fringe benefits for the Office of Constituent Affairs ($200,000)
• Eliminating two deputy comptrollers positions ($271,333) and cutting fringe benefits for two deputy comptrollers ($108,533)
