Democratic Nassau County Comptroller candidate Howard Weitzman (D-North Hills) has filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission alleging that county officials, including his opponent Comptroller George Maragos (R-Great Neck), attempted to mislead the public with claims of a county surplus during the 2012 fiscal year.
Weitzman and state Assemblyman Charles Levine (D-Glen Cove) announced the complaint at a press conference Monday, and are also calling on state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli to audit Nassau’s finances.
“It is clear to me that comptroller Maragos has cooked the books and will say anything necessary to get the final result that he thinks will help in his election year, as opposed to the truth that Nassau County taxpayers deserve,” said Weitzman, who served as comptroller from 2001 through 2009.
Weitzman and his ticket-mate, former County Executive Tom Suozzi ,are in a rematch campaign against Maragos and County Executive Edward Mangano ahead of November’s general election.
The allegations center on a December 2012 court order, granted at the request of a county attorney, that shifted $88 million of unfunded property tax refunds to the 2013 budget.
Weitzman alleges that the deferment, first reported on by the Wall Street Journal, allowed Maragos to change a projected deficit into a $41 million on-paper surplus, while not helping the county’s underlying finances.
Without the transfer, Weitzman said, the county would have shown a nearly $45 million deficit.
Maragos rejected the allegations, touting the improving fiscal health of county and stating that his office had nothing to do with the request to transfer the $88 million in liabilities to 2013.
“To us the Weitzman allegations are bizarre and completely unfounded,” Maragos said, adding that the surplus was confirmed by the independent auditors.
Maragos said the court petition was one of the options available to the county to deal with the liability, which he said could not have been paid out that year due to Democratic obstruction in the Nassau County Legislature.
The reported surplus, Maragos said, was based on the financial facts on the ground.
“The responsibility of this office is not to pass judgment but to reflect the financial events as they transpire,” he said.
Maragos also criticized the proposed audit of the county’s book, saying that DiNapoli, who has endorsed Weitzman, would face a conflict of interest if he injected his office into the race.
The county currently owes more than $300 million in projected commercial property tax refunds, according to reports from Maragos’ office.
Efforts by the Mangano administration to change the tax refund system have met roadblocks, with court challenges to a law ending the county’s practice of paying for the refunds of schools and special districts and Democrats resisting efforts to borrow money to pay out refunds.
In June Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature agreed to borrow $40 million to pay off refunds, with Maragos projecting an additional $48 million to be paid out of the 2013 budget, according to a mid-year financial projections.
Weitzman said at the press conference that misleading financial statements could imperil taxpayers and county bond holders, and cited previous SEC investigations of municipal finances in Miami, Boston and San Diego.
Levine concurred with Weitzman’s criticism, describing the surplus as “illusory at best.”
“When you cook the books, when you lie to the people about budget performance, what you’re doing is you’re creating a budget that is radioactive and that is toxic,” Levine said.
Reach reporter Dan Glaun by e-mail at dglaun@theislandnow.com, by phone at 516.307.1045 x203 or on Twitter @dglaun. Also follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.
