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       May 18, 2000

Dems present Comptroller with calculator
saying, 'Please use in future'


The Democratic Majority presented Nassau County Comptroller Fred Parola with a calculator today, following his hasty and inaccurate portrayal of the Democratic Majority's Fiscal 2000 finance report.

In a letter sent to the Comptroller this afternoon, Presiding Officer Judy Jacobs called it "incomprehensible" how the Comptroller's superficial review of the finance report led to the misinterpretation of the data provided by the Majority.

"This incident has seriously shaken my confidence in the fairness and accuracy of the Comptroller's office," Jacobs said. Her comments came in response to a memo produced by the Comptroller on Tuesday, May 16, criticizing the Majority's draft proposal for Fiscal Year 2000 actions needed to comply with Governor Pataki's fiscal recovery plan.

According to Jacobs, after only a few seconds into the conversation this morning between the majority's Budget Director Mark Young and the Comptroller's staff, it was discovered that Parola's office had misinterpreted the chart outlining the cuts which was provided by the Majority.

"Perhaps the sorriest part of this episode is that your office's misinterpretation could have been resolved if someone there had taken only two minutes to seek out a clarification from our finance staff," Jacobs said in a letter to Parola. "Instead they salivated at the prospect of attacking our financial staff through the media. This kind of premature judgement of budget proposals before adequate analysis is complete is another example of what is wrong with this County," Jacobs added.

The Democratic Majority had sent their list of $56 million in proposed cuts to the County Executive as a starting point from which to close the County's $100 million budget deficit for 2000.

"We thought that perhaps the Comptroller would benefit from a new calculator," Jacobs said, holding up a gift-wrapped gadget before it was sent off to the Comptroller's office.