Vote delayed to approve Nassau's $2.6-billion budget

After a long day of complaints from youth board advocates, school officials, bus riders, veterans and hospital representatives, the Republican leader of the Nassau Legislature delayed approval of County Executive Edward Mangano's proposed $2.6-billion budget until Saturday.

Presiding Officer Peter Schmitt (R-Massapequa) indicated the Republican majority likely would approve the 2011 budget after adding $60 million in amendments to provide a cushion against possible shortfalls, including $61 million in union concessions. The budget, criticized by fiscal watchdogs as risky, would hold the line on property taxes but impose some $60 million in new fees.

Schmitt said during a legislative meeting in Mineola that the county can no longer afford to pay property tax refunds on behalf of Nassau's school districts, towns and special taxing districts or allow nonprofit organizations, including hospitals and American Legion posts, to discharge sewage into county sewers without paying for it.

The legislature is scheduled to vote along party lines to end Nassau's decades-old guarantee to pay the tax refunds, which historically cost more than $80 million a year, and to impose on nonreligious tax-exempt organizations a new sewer fee - which Democrats insist is a tax - of up to 1 cent per gallon of water.

"The free ride has got to end or the county goes bankrupt," Schmitt said. "We have to find ways to balance our budget."

Republicans and Democrats said late Thursday that they had made a deal on borrowing to pay tax refunds. Borrowing requires 13 votes, which means the 11-member Republican majority needed at least two Democratic votes.

Mangano originally proposed borrowing $364 million to pay current and backlogged refunds during the next two years while he worked on fixing assessment problems. He reduced that number to $211 million. Under pressure from Minority Leader Diane Yatauro (D-Glen Cove), he agreed to ask for only $50 million to cover this year's costs.

School officials protested that the county should fix its assessment system before shifting the refund costs to them.

William Lloyd, Uniondale superintendent, said ending the guarantee "will be devastating." Ranier Melucci, Merrick school superintendent and president of the county superintendents' association, said districts will have to immediately set up a reserve fund, even though lawmakers could not tell them how much it will cost each district.

If the legislature votes to end the guarantee, Mary Jo O'Hagan, vice president of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association, said lawsuits are likely. "I don't think there will be any question that there will be legal action," she said. "We have a fiduciary obligation to fight this."

Mangano's budget includes $9 million for the MTA to run Long Island Bus, not the $26 million demanded by the agency, which bus riders said will jeopardize the county's public transportation system. It also eliminates 11 youth board jobs, which advocates say could result in a loss of up to $6 million in grants.

Schmitt said future adjustments in spending are possible. "Nothing is set in stone," he said.