Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano wants to share a simple message with Nassau voters: his priority is low property taxes.
Mangano, who will face off for re-election in November against the winner of the Democratic primary, told Blank Slate Media in an interview last week that property taxes would be his main focus during the campaign and said his administration had passes three budgets without raising the county’s property tax levy.
“There really is one issue, and it’s property taxes. That really is the main issue,” Mangano said. “We have a very good record in that regard.”
Mangano’s prospective Democratic opponents – former County Executive and party favorite Tom Suozzi, as well as Roslyn businessman and school Trustee Adam Haber, have criticized Mangano’s handling of the county’s finances and his proposals to pay off its liabilities, some of which are facing court injunctions and appeals.
But the Bethpage Republican said he is focused on the business of governing, and is not yet devoting his attention to the campaign trail.
“We’re still very much government focused,” Mangano said. “We have a job to do. That’s what I do all day.”
Mangano defended his administration’s efforts to end the county guarantee, which places responsibility for school and special district tax refunds on the books of the county – a practice that has contributed to the hundreds of millions in unpaid refunds owed to commercial tax payers.
Mangano backed a law revoking the guarantee, which survived a first court challenge by schools and districts but was overturned on appeal. The county is currently challenging the decision made on the appeal
School officials have said that shifting refund responsibility would strain school budgets for errors made by the county’s assessment system. Mangano said much of the fears over the change are driven by misinformation, and stressed that schools would only pay for future refunds, not existing debt. “There’s no shift. There’s absolutely no shift from all the past indebtedness,” Mangano said, adding that Nassau is the only county in the state that has a tax refund guarantee. “It’ll make everybody a stakeholder in fixing the assessment system.”
Mangano argued that the change would convince school districts to help the county lobby Albany to change state law to fix the county’s assessment system and reduce future liabilities.
He also said a practice he initiated of negotiating settlements with virtually all residents challenging their taxes will drastically reduce future refunds.
The county executive also rejected the legal arguments of the schools and districts, supported by an appellate court earlier this spring, that the county cannot unilaterally overturn the guarantee because it is written into state law. Mangano said the guarantee was part of county administrative code, and so could be changed by the county Legislature.
“Every reform is met with legal challenges,” Mangano said.
Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos has said that should the guarantee be reinstated, it could cost the county up to $50 million dollars per year starting in 2015.
But, Mangano said, those liabilities would quickly disappear, should Democrats stop “obstructing” his plan to pay off tax refunds using bonds.
Mangano proposes bonding for the existing liabilities and paying them off over several years – a plan that he says would prevent an unfair burden in any one year. The proposal has won the support of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority and a majority of the Republican-controlled Legislature. But Mangano requires a legislative supermajority to bond and Democrats have refused to support taking out the debt, calling the move irresponsible.
“They’re not supporting it for political reasons, not governmental reasons,” said Mangano. He added that he feels political pressure is beginning to mount against Democrats to support the proposal.
Mangano also said that his administration has worked to increase affordable housing stock in Nassau to attract younger professionals, a demographic that has been hard-pressed to cope with rising costs of living in the county. He pointed to an Nassau County Industrial Development Agency program to provide incentives for developers to turn empty office buildings into mixed-use apartment and retail buildings.
The IDA has come under fire from school and village officials for considering applications for tax concessions from businesses, including the Bristal assisted living facilities, that would not create significant numbers of jobs.
But Mangano said that the fact that the IDA has ended up rejecting those applications after protest demonstrates that the system works, and that the vast majority of IDA tax agreements go towards attracting or preserving jobs in Nassau County.
“That’s why there’s a public process. None of the IDA programs can go through without a public hearing in the area they’re going to have it,” Mangano said.
The county’s deadline for proposals to revamp the Nassau Coliseum passed on Monday, and Mangano addressed his decision to seek advice from developer Bruce Ratner after the New York Islanders announced that they would be departing the Coliseum for Ratner’s Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn.
“We said let’s get someone with some expertise that can go out and meet with all the smaller interests and see if they can put together something that works,” Mangano said. “In that process, Bruce Ratner came forward.”
Mangano said that following the failure of Islanders owner Charles Wang’s Lighthouse Project to redevelop the Nassau Hub, no private developers came forward with a credible plan, leading to the unsuccessful summer 2011 referendum to fund a new Coliseum through county borrowing.
The new request for proposal requires developers to fund the construction themselves.
Ratner’s development company would not comment on whether it planned to bid for the development rights. Mangano said Ratner was not prohibited from submitting a proposal.
The county has not released the names of bidding developers, but Mangano released a statement Tuesday expressing confidence in the proposal process.
“With responses received from four high-level entertainment developers we remain very encouraged that a plan for a mid sized sports entertainment venue is in Nassau’s future,” Mangano said in the statement.
