CSEA workers offered incentive to retire

Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano Monday announced an incentive of $1,000 per year of service for Civil Service Employee Association workers who retire by July 20.

"This initiative urges the most highly paid employees to leave the workforce so that we can continue to right-size government and hold the line on property taxes," Mangano said.

The incentive is meant to soften the blow of layoffs the administration announced after the county legislature rejected $40.8 million in borrowing. Democrats declined to provide the three added votes needed by the Republican majority. They say they won't vote for any new borrowing without a new legislative redistricting plan that is "fairer" than the one Republicans have proposed.

This will be the third round of job cuts over the past year. Since June 2011, there have been about 400 layoffs of CSEA members, and another 300 retired with incentives.

The Nassau Interim Finance Authority, the state board that oversees the county's finances, approved the incentive offered Monday.

"The Board has indicated its preliminary approval pending staff review of the details and the achievement of the requisite savings," said a statement by NIFA chairman Ron Stack.

CSEA president Jerry Laricchiuta said: "Although we believe the layoffs of any CSEA members to not be feasible, the recurring savings produced by this incentive will be used to offset the county's budget deficit and mitigate any future layoffs."