Laura Curran, Nassau County Executive

LAURA CURRAN

Democratic

BACKGROUND:

• Curran, 53, a former Baldwin school board member and Nassau County legislator, is seeking a second term as Nassau County executive.
• A former newspaper reporter for the New York Daily News and the New York Post, Curran received her bachelor's degree in humanities from Sarah Lawrence College and did graduate work in American Studies at the CUNY Graduate School.
• Curran succeeded former County Executive Edward Mangano, a Republican, after he was arrested on federal corruption charges, along with his wife, Linda Mangano, and now-deceased Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto. Venditto was acquitted on federal charges in 2018 but pleaded guilty to a state felony and state misdemeanor charge in 2019. Edward and Linda Mangano, who are appealing their federal convictions in a 2019 retrial, are awaiting sentencing.

ISSUES:

• Curran reassessed all 385,000 residential properties in 2018 after a nearly decadelong freeze of property values. Republicans, who joined Democrats to approve the reassessment, say Curran's program was "botched" and caused property taxes to increase sharply. Assessment experts praised the new roll as highly accurate and say her plan to phase-in assessment increases, which won approvals from the State Legislature, the governor's office and the Nassau County Legislature, helped to prevent huge sticker shock for many property owners.
• Curran says her administration has addressed Nassau's "culture of corruption" — boosting financial disclosure requirements and contracting procedures through executive orders — and turned around county finances. The county achieved budget surpluses in 2019 and 2020 and is on track to secure one in 2021, and is planning to offer a $70 million tax levy cut in 2022. Officials from the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, Nassau's financial control board, say a $1 billion refinancing of Nassau debt, along with receipt of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal pandemic aid, have helped stabilize county finances. But NIFA has warned Nassau could experience large budget deficits after 2022.
• Curran cites her leadership during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic and her work in securing high vaccination rates across the county in 2021. Curran also cites administration programs to provide aid to small businesses during the pandemic, and to promote the county's economic recovery.

Watch Laura Curran, Bruce Blakeman clash over taxes, crime at a Newsday town hall.

By Scott Eidler

scott.eidler@newsday.com@ScottEidler

Scott Eidler is a deputy editor for the towns department at Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.