The Coalition of Nassau County Youth Agencies announced a campaign to reverse the county’s cuts to youth services Tuesday in a press conference with seven local school superintendents.
“The end goal is to get the money restored,” said coalition president Peter Levy. ““Both political parties have used these programs as a pawn to get what they want… in the mean time, the only people who are losing are the people and the families.”
Levy said that superintendents David Weiss of Long Beach, Michael Nagler of Mineola, Al Harper of Elmont, Charles Sulc of Massapequa, Mary Lagnado of Westbury, William Lloyd of Uniondale and Thomas Dolan Great Neck participated in the conference, which was held at Gateway Youth Outreach in Elmont.
Forty youth programs lost funding in July when Democrats and Republicans on the county Legislature could not come to an agreement that would have preserved the funding.
Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano said the programs would lose their funding unless Democrats approved $41 million in borrowing to pay for property tax refunds, and Democrats refused to support additional debt until they and the GOP came to terms on a county redistricting plan.
Mangano’s office release a statement blaming Democrats for the shortfall and saying that the county executive had preserved funding for some counseling, support and sheltering programs.
“County Executive Ed Mangano introduced two consecutive budgets that fully funded programs for Nassau County’s youth. This funding existed until the Democrats in the Legislature attempted to create a cash crisis by withholding the votes necessary to keep Nassau County’s fiscal recovery plan on track,” spokesperson Brian Nevin said in the statement. “The plan, approved by a Majority in the County Legislature and the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority, ensured funding for youth programs remained fully intact. Sadly, Democrats are shamefully withholding the votes needed to maintain funding until their demands for a political gerrymandering process that favors their own re-election are met.”
Democratic leaders in the Legislature could not be reached for comment prior to publication, but in a June press conference minority leader Kevan Abrahams (D) blamed the cuts on fiscal mismanagement and wasteful spending by the Republican majority.
“The county executive has run dry on his ideas, or maybe just can’t implement some of his ideas and doesn’t have the capability or the know how to do it,” he said. “But, the bottom line is very simple. He needs to come up with the savings.”
Levy said that counseling, after school, gang intervention, violence and pregnancy prevention programs have all felt the effects of the cuts.
“In some cases, kids have been going home alone, or their parents have been losing employment to take care of their kids,” he said.
