Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano (R-Bethpage) and challenger Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) laid out their contrasting visions for Nassau at a Garden City Chamber of Commerce event Wednesday – the first campaign meeting of both candidates since Suozzi won the Democratic primary two weeks ago.
The forum was nearly overshadowed by the concurrent manhunt for Sang Ho Kim, the man suspected by Nassau County Police of shooting two men in Garden City Wednesday morning.
Suozzi opened his address with an update on the shooting, and Mangano arrived late due to the developing investigation.
Suozzi, the former county executive who lost to Mangano by a narrow margin in 2009, described a change in fortunes between New York City and Nassau County, with Nassau County now facing the financial and economic challenges experienced New York City in the 1970s.
“Now things have been reversed,” Suozzi said. “New York City is rising – there’s growth, there’s construction, people from all over the world want to move there. And we ourselves are in decline.”
Mangano drew a different image of a county in recovery, touting economic initiatives he said had brought jobs to Nassau and assuring the crowd of businesspersons and public officials gathered at the Garden City Hotel that he was implementing plans to fix Nassau’s financial problems.
“We are intent on establishing Nassau County as a welcoming place for business,” Mangano said.
Suozzi returned to a theme he visited during his primary campaign against Roslyn businessman Adam Haber – that his administration had seen bond upgrades and surpluses, while Mangano presided over the takeover of Nassau’s finances by the state.
Suozzi said the county had seen 13 bond upgrades while he was in office, and cited editorial criticism from the New York Post, New York Times, Newsday and other outlets of Mangano’s financial performance.
Mangano said that he, unlike Suozzi, had held the line on property taxes and had overseen a business recovery that increased sales tax revenue to the county. He said that he had implemented some elements of his recovery plan, but that others – including new borrowing to pay out accumulated tax refund liabilities – had been obstructed by Democrats in the county Legislature.
“It is certainly a challenge when you upset the culture that has run the county for quite some time,” Mangano said.
And while the candidates portrayed the election as a race of sharp contrasts, they both identified the decline of youth population in Nassau as a priority of their campaigns.
Suozzi said he would establish a competition among municipalities to encourage the development of apartments and mixed-use housing near train stations – a proposal for “cool downtowns” that he said would be a corrective to years of exodus from the county among young adults.
And Mangano touted an incentive program that he said had already converted disused buildings into apartments, as part of an effort to expand affordable housing in the county.
Suozzi offered a note of optimism, arguing that he would turn around the county should voters give him another term in office
“I believe that this can be the best county in the country,” Suozzi said.
And Mangano returned to his core issue, saying he believed voters would support his commitment to keeping property taxes down.
“We believe that message is the message that is restoring the economy in Nassau County,” Mangano said.
