Once-and-possibly-future Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi says the county is in crisis – and that four years after a razor-thin and unexpected loss to current County Executive Edward Mangano (R-Bethpage), he is the man to fix it.
Suozzi, who has the backing of the county’s Democratic leadership and the Communications Workers of America Local 1104 union, will have to get through a primary challenge from Roslyn businessman Adam Haber if he is to face off against Mangano.
But in an interview with Blank Slate Media, Suozzi cast his gaze on November and beyond, saying that he will bring a renewed focus to addressing Nassau’s fiscal, economic and demographic challenges.
“My vision is for Nassau County to preserve the things that are good about – our single-family homes, our suburban neighborhoods, our parks, our beaches, our pen spaces, our low crime, our low unemployment, our quality of life, our health care – preserve all the good stuff but address the serious systemic problems we have,” Suozzi said.
One of the main problems facing the county, according to Suozzi, is an exodus of young professionals driven to New York City and beyond by high housing costs and a dearth of what Suozzi describes as “cool downtowns.”
He said he was not sufficiently focused on working with town and village officials during his first term, but that upon re-election he would communicate with local leaders to promote the kind of mixed residential-commercial and transit-friendly housing he says will help bring young people back to Nassau.
“It needs to happen in Glen Cove, it needs to happen in Hicksville, it needs to happen in Freeport, it needs to happen in Hempstead, it needs to Lynbrook, it needs to happen in Valley Stream,” Suozzi said.
And though zoning is locally controlled, Suozzi said the county has a role in encouraging municipalities to act. He said he would propose a competition for revamping Nassau’s downtowns modeled on the federal Race To The Top education reform program, and that such changes could expand the county’s tax base and attract college graduates from Long Island to move back after graduation.
Suozzi, who held the county’s top leadership post from 2002 through 2009, accused Mangano of undoing progress his administration had made towards fixing Nassau’s finances.
“Mangano’s big thing is ‘I inherited a mess, and I’m trying hard to fix the problem.’ No. 1, everybody in America had a mess in January of 2010 when he took office,” Suozzi said. “Everybody’s got problems, so saying you’re trying to fix it is not good enough. You have to actually fix the problem.”
Nassau has struggled with fiscal stability for years, both in Suozzi’s and Mangano’s terms, with the Nassau Interim Finance Authority exercising state oversight on the county’s finances. Some of the challenges currently being grappled with by the Mangano administration, including hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid tax refund liabilities and high labor costs as a result of contract arbitration with unions, were also issues during Suozzi’s term.
But Suozzi said that his administration took steps towards fixing those problems, and the failure to address them completely was due to obstruction from Republicans, including Mangano, and less reform-minded officials in county government.
Suozzi, whose fostered a combative relationship with the Nassau police union during his first terms, said he tried to pressure unions into taking cuts during the county’s financial struggles but was undercut by opposition from Mangano and others in the Legislature.
“He told the unions he would never vote for layoffs,” said Suozzi. “Mangano conveniently neglects to mention the fact that he was in office for [about] 15 years as a county legislator – voted for every union contract there ever was. He undermined my negotiating ability as a county executive.”
And the growth in tax refund liabilities, which has increased in recent years but was also a concern during Suozzi’s tenure as county executive, is the result of a flawed assessment system, said Suozzi – a system he said he tried to fix but faced opposition from elected County Assessor Harvey Levinson, who served until 2009.
“The first thing you have to do is you have to fix the assessment system itself,” Suozzi said. “When I left office, the assessment system was markedly better than when I took office, but it was still not fixed.”
Mangano has backed efforts to address the county’s finances. Two of those efforts – laws allowing the county to change existing contracts and shifting responsibility for paying tax refunds to schools and special districts – have stalled in the courts following lawsuits.
“I think the county guarantee being shifted to the school districts is an awful idea, a terrible idea – number one, because you’re just shifting the costs to the school districts, so the taxpayers are still paying the same money, and like an unfunded state mandate, if the county doesn’t have to pay the expense they have less incentive to fix the assessment system,” Suozzi said.
Mangano has accused Democrats of obstructing his efforts to balance Nassau’s books. Democrats have refused to give Mangano the legislative super majority he needs to take out bonds to pay the backlog of tax refunds, saying that taking out such debt would be irresponsible.
Suozzi does have another opponent to face before November – Haber. A former commodities trader and a Roslyn school board member, Haber has criticized both Suozzi and Mangano and sent out mailers portraying himself as an outsider alternative to the Republican and Democratic establishments.
Suozzi declined to comment on Haber’s candidacy, and said it was premature to state before the party’s nominating convention whether he would debate Haber in the primaries.
The Glen Cove Democrat, who first won the county executive seat after an underdog challenge against Democratic party favorite Tom DiNapoli in 2001, said the early party support and endorsements were new to him.
“I’m very excited by the broad base of support that I’m receiving, from the grass roots level to the party institution level to different people who are involved with not for profits and agencies,” Suozzi said. “Historically I was always the one fighting everybody, so I’m not used to having this broad based support. I’m happy to have it.”
