Mangano Slashes Government Spending

Mineola, NY - Addressing the fiscal disaster inherited by his administration when he took office eight weeks ago, Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, joined by Presiding Officer Peter Schmitt, today announced he has begun to reform county government by slashing patronage and cutting spending to fill the 2010 budget hole left behind by the previous administration and the repeal of the home energy tax.

"Clearly residents could not afford to pay for the Democrat-imposed energy tax and my plan proves that there are alternatives to taxation,” said Mangano. “Today, Nassau County takes its first steps toward fiscal recovery.”

Among the measures taken by the county executive is cutting $22 million from the County payroll, including nearly $10 million less in managerial and support patronage positions.

“The Mangano Administration is leaner and more efficient.” said Mangano. “Instead of top-heavy departments, we have professionals working harder and more efficiently,” said Mangano.

Mangano also identified $28.7 million in budget risks left behind by the Suozzi administration in its 2010 budget, including unrealistic projections of sales tax and cigarette tax revenues.

 “Engineering such sweeping reform requires cooperation, and I want to thank Presiding Officer Schmitt for his support,” said Mangano. “Working together we can and will solve Nassau County’s fiscal problems.”

"In keeping with our campaign promises, our first priority is the health of Nassau’s finances. The cuts announcedtoday will show that the unfair home energy tax was never necessary in the first place, and help us start to fix Suozzi’s ‘Ponzi scheme’ of a budget and start heading towards real cost savings for the tax payers of Nassau County," said Schmitt.

These are only the first steps in a long journey to fiscal health and many more actions will be taken to improve Nassau’s finances.

Mangano’s top priority is the reform of the property tax assessment system that wastes $250 million per year of taxpayer’s hard-earned money. Mangano launched an aggressive attack on the system on his first day as County Executive by signing executive orders that established the Assessment Reform Team (ART) and lowering the interest rate paid on commercial tax certiorari cases to 3 percent.

“I will reform Nassau’s property assessment system.” said Mangano. “Quite simply, there is no choice but to fix the system that the previous administration ignored for eight years. The County’s fiscal recovery depends on it.”

Mangano has also formed a Government Efficiency Committee, comprised of senior members of his staff and other departments, to continue to assess government spending and take the necessary steps to stop the bleeding.

“The goal of this committee is to cut wasteful spending and eliminate duplicative services" said Mangano.

The Mangano Plan was presented to the Nassau Interim Finance Authority (NIFA) last week.

“We look forward to working with NIFA and improving the fiscal future of Nassau County. This administration is taking bold steps to fix what was broken,” said Mangano. “We are going to aggressively manage County spending every single day.”

 

 

[The Media Responds: Read the media's response to the Mangano Plan]