Imagine if YOU Were the Newly Elected County Executive ... (Union: rentals, sex offenders)

[I_Love_LI_but]

... of whatever county you live in, what would be your starting game plan?

(This thread is dedicated to crookhaven.)

[I_Love_LI_but]

1. Commission a study to figure out exactly HOW to cut property taxes by reviewing other areas that do not have a big property tax problem and trying to learn new ways of doing things from them.

2. Call all union bosses into my office that are paid out of Nassau's tax receipts and break the news to them that they should not ask for raises in contracts for anyone until further notice because the taxpayers certainly aren't getting raises and they should be happy with what they have instead of greedy.

3. Put a moratorium on patronage jobs and insist that every single County job must be filled via a civil service test. (That would include ME not being able to hire my own cousin or something to be my new $100K a year secretary. I would follow my own rules.)

4. Make a study of what exactly illegal aliens are costing the taxpayers of Nassau County. Then use it accordingly to create county-wide regulations that will forbid any of that spending anymore.

5. Serious crackdowns on illegal rentals, particularly those that are severely overcrowded. This will help save lives, as overcrowding is a major fire hazard and will help discourage illegal aliens from staying on LI.

6. Make a county-wide mandate that all employees WHO GO TO PEOPLE'S HOMES have to be bonded by their employer or at least drug tested and criminal checked. If a contractor works solo, s/he should have these investigations done on themself. No longer should contractors be able to pick a stranger off the side of the road and bring them to a customer's house. No longer should sex offenders be able to start their own business that brings them into the homes of citizens and their children.

[Walter Greenspan]

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Under current law, and with county general and county special district property taxes less than 20%, give or take, of the property tax bill, other than using the bully pulpit, there is very little that a county executive, assuming that his party controls the county legislature, can do.
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[Gpsma]

Did you read Suozzi's editorial in Newsday on Sunday? The one stating that he felt the County Executive should take more control over the schools?
How can anyone blame Suozzi for high property taxes when it is the school districts that are killing us.
The first thing I would do is follow Suozzi's plan and take control over these schools.

[Crookhaven]

Originally Posted by I_Love_LI_but

... of whatever county you live in, what would be your starting game plan?

(This thread is dedicated to crookhaven.)

Im flattered LI ; )


The Crookhaven (patent pending) 5 point action plan.

1)Merge and Match School Districs to Councilmanic Districts.

2)Fire myself, Eliminate County Government Like CT and use State Troopers.

3)Allow for low risk Prison Labor to clean our Highways & roads.

4)Invest in sewers to develop our Downtowns to shift the burden of our taxes off the single family home, fight future sprawl and protect our drinking water.

5)Taxes ought to be based on square footage (with a significant premium placed on Waterfronts), so If you live modestly, youll be taxed modestly.

Crooks

[I_Love_LI_but]

Originally Posted by Walter Greenspan

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.
Under current law, and with county general and county special district property taxes less than 20%, give or take, of the property tax bill, other than using the bully pulpit, there is very little that a county executive, assuming that his party controls the county legislature, can do.
.
.

I guess I would have to use the bully pulpit via the Kate Murray "constant junk mail" system. However, instead of sending out mail glorifying myself, I would send mail alerting Nassau residents to dirty deeds done to them. For example:

Everytime someone voted against something that would help the taxpayers, etc., I would send out a postcard to their constituents telling them exactly what happened and how much more they can expect it to cost.

As for the school districts, I would keep on top of every raise, etc., approved by them and send out my bully pulpit messages to the taxpayers affected.

[RiddleMeThis]

Originally Posted by I_Love_LI_but

1. Commission a study to figure out exactly HOW to cut property taxes by reviewing other areas that do not have a big property tax problem and trying to learn new ways of doing things from them.

Not with the unions we have in place. As others have mentioned with school taxes making up 65% of the tax bill, this problem is ballooning every single year and no sign of slowing down.

My sister is a county employee in NC and this year they get no raise. There is no money in the budget for it. And no one is complaining - they are all just happy to have jobs, and NOT having their property taxes go up.

My son is being taught by a very nice young man this year. The guy is 29 years old, has been teaching for 5 years, and makes $81K a year. If he works another 25 years, anyone want to hazzard a guess what his salary (and therefore his pension) will be when he retires?

The amazing thing is how many people are utterly clueless about this issue. My neighbor was talking about a family the other day where both parents are LI school teachers. They live in a really nice section of Garden City. And my neighbor said "how can 2 school teachers afford that house?" and I was like "ummmm - are you serious? It's not 1970 anymore". I had another conversation with another parent about a complaint she made to the Supt of schools here over the summer and she said she felt bad about taking up his time and I said "why, he makes about $250K a year" and she was absolutely floored. THought he made about $80K. No - teachers with 5 years experience are making that!

[Smash255]

Originally Posted by Gpsma

Did you read Suozzi's editorial in Newsday on Sunday? The one stating that he felt the County Executive should take more control over the schools?
How can anyone blame Suozzi for high property taxes when it is the school districts that are killing us.
The first thing I would do is follow Suozzi's plan and take control over these schools.

Agreed, we need to do something about the school tax issue, it makes up 65-70% of the property taxes and it is killing us. Newsday had an article about two years ago comparing Nassau County to Fairfax Virginia (which is similar to Nassau in many ways). Fairfax has a county wide school system and taxes are quite a bit lower as a result.

As far as the County itself, not all that much you can cut. Keep in mind the county portion of your tax bill, makes up 1/6 of your total bill. One thing you could do is go after some of the Police Union contracts. About 2/3 of the county portion of the property tax bill goes to the Police. Some of the contracts and payouts are absurd, for example in his last year on the force in 2001 Joe Belesi worked 8 months and collected $437,000 worth of taxpayer $$$. I'm all for paying cops well, but crap like that needs to end.

[I_Love_LI_but]

So with the school districts all being independent entities and their costs comprising 65-70% of our property taxes, who CAN cut property taxes? Have we painted ourselves into a corner we can't get out of?

[Walter Greenspan]

Originally Posted by I_Love_LI_but

... who CAN cut property taxes?

The residents of each of the 56 independent school districts can if they get off their duff and elect school board members willing to take on the teachers' union and roll-back salaries and benefits when contracts come up for renewal; and, if the teachers strike, fire them and replace them with teachers willing to work for more rational salaries and benefits.