When Tom Suozzi lost his county executive seat to Edward Mangano in 2009, he did not campaign hard enough or understand the level of dissatisfaction held by Nassau’s voters.
That’s not conjecture, or a Mangano talking point – rather, Suozzi said so in a moment of candor at a press conference last week, where the once-and-possibly-future county executive fielded a range of questions about his political comeback attempt.
“I didn’t realize the depth of people’s anger,” Suozzi said. “It was my fault for not working hard enough and not focusing enough, and not understanding how angry people were.”
But the problems facing Nassau today lie squarely at the feet of Mangano, Suozzi said.
The Glen Cove Democrat said Mangano’s administration has presided over fiscally irresponsible borrowing, economic struggles and growing liabilities for county government.
Mangano has slammed Suozzi as a tax-raiser, and touted his administration’s hard line on tax increases at the county level. Suozzi defended the property tax increase his administration passed as a necessary consequence of inheriting a county in dire fiscal straits, and took Mangano to task for failing to put forward a compelling plan for Nassau’s future.
“There’s been no vision. Nobody’s been talking about this is where we need to go for the long term,” Suozzi said.
Suozzi was lobbied to run by the county Democratic establishment, and received a ringing endorsement from party Chairman Jay Jacobs when he formally announced last Wednesday after weeks of speculation.
Though Jacobs made clear his intention to unify the party behind Suozzi, businessman Adam Haber has signalled that he will put up a primary fight and has issued press releases attacking Suozzi’s record and his dedication to the race.
“I think that debate is good. I think it’s good that people are sharing ideas as to how to make things better. I’m not happy with the fact that he’s starting off this race with the tone he’s starting off,” Suozzi said of Haber’s candidacy. “Give us a vision for the future of the county instead of the same tired old political attacks that people are sick of.”
“I’m proud of the Suozzi record. I’ve had eight balanced budgets, I had eight surpluses, I had 13 bond upgrades,” Suozzi added.
He repeatedly criticized Mangano’s handling of county finances at the press conference, calling the administration’s claims of a budget surplus “phony” and saying the county was relying too heavily on borrowing.
Suozzi said his priority for the county is to encourage municipal development to draw in businesses and make Nassau more livable for younger people.
“We need to expand the property tax base. We need to build up our downtown areas into what I used to call the ‘cool downtowns,’ ” he said, describing transit-oriented development projects that are in part designed to create rental units in towns and village centers
“This is the wave of the future for not just suburbia on Long Island but across America,” Suozzi said.
Suozzi was also pressed on his previous support for local consolidation – a stance that was less than popular among municipal officials whose departments could have been merged under consolidation schemes.
Suozzi said he still likes the ideas as a theoretical money-saver, but would not press for it as county executive because of its political unpalatability
“I think that consolidating local districts is a good idea that’s not going to happen,” Suozzi said. “There’s an expression that I’ve become very comfortable with: ‘the price of perfection is bankruptcy.’”
When asked if he supported consolidating school districts, Suozzi paused briefly and gave a single word answer: “No.”
