The Nassau County Legislature passed its first-ever override of an executive veto Friday, striking a 1.2-percent property tax increase from the county budget and pushing the county one step closer to a showdown with its state oversight board.
The 14-4 bipartisan vote nixed County Executive Edward Mangano’s veto of a Republican budget amendment removing the tax hike that would have raised $12 million in revenue, representing 0.004 percent of the total $2.95 billion budget.
Deputy Presiding Officer Norma Gonsalves (R-East Meadow) said she thinks the budget is “reasonable and achievable” without the tax hike, adding: “I have every confidence that the County Executive will manage to the budget that he is given.”
Both parties filed identical resolutions on Monday for the override, which required a supermajority of 13 votes to pass. Four Democrats and 10 Republicans voted to approve it.
Two Democrats and two Republicans voted no. Legislator Ellen Birnbaum (D-Great Neck) was not present.
The removal of the tax increase was the only piece of the Republican majority-amended budget Mangano vetoed Monday. He left intact another amendment striking two administrative fee increases projected to raise $16 million in revenue.
In an email, Spokesman Brian Nevin said Mangano will implement the budget the Legislature approved and will make “every effort to preserve quality of life services.”
The override came hours after Nassau Interim Finance Authority reiterated its threat to take control of the county budget, which the Republican-controlled Legislature first approved Oct. 26.
NIFA outlined last month a plan to make major spending cuts to non-essential services, impose a county-wide hiring freeze and increase limits and oversight on private contracts if the Legislature did not find revenue to cover a projected $80 million deficit.
In a letter to the Legislature Friday afternoon, NIFA Board Chair Jon Kaiman said the oversight agency would “immediately” take action to start implementing that plan if lawmakers cut any more new revenue — such as the tax hike — from the budget.
NIFA will decide whether to accept, reject or ask for further revisions to the budget Nov. 19.
“It’s clear that the board members are concerned about today’s events and the failure of the county to take its responsibility seriously in relation to the county’s fiscal situation,” Kaiman said in an interview.
Republican leaders spoke critically of NIFA’s plan, particularly its promise to reject borrowing to cover $32 million in termination pay, an expense they say is out of the county’s control.
Gonsalves said the oversight agency has “manufactured a budget crisis,” noting that state officials approved termination pay borrowing in 2009 and that NIFA has not said specifically what discretionary programs it will cut.
“It seems they’re are a body of individuals who are seeking to exercise their muscles, which is inappropriate in the utmost extent,” Deputy Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park) said, calling NIFA’s actions “arbitrary.”
Kaiman said the Legislators “should be ashamed of themselves” because accounting best practices don’t allow for termination pay borrowing.
“The question is not whether we’re acting arbitrarily,” he said. “It’s whether they’re acting responsibly and doing their job, and apparently they are not.”
Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams (D-Hempstead) said the most dire issue affecting the county’s finances was the contract system, which two independent reports have said is prone to corruption.
He said NIFA should impose contract reforms before cutting discretionary spending that goes to, among other things, services for youth, senior citizens and others in need.
“We’re willing to say that services will be impacted, and from that standpoint we should be looking to cut everywhere,” Abrahams said. “(T)hose that are the most vulnerable, for those that can’t speak for themselves … should never ever be on the chopping block first.”
