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We never really had a surplus in Nassau county. Under Suozzi, Nassau came back from the edge of bankruptcy, thanks in part to timely cuts, a bit of a property tax hike and some help from the state.
The only real problem Suozzi had was that he wanted to use the County exec seat to run for Governor and as a result took his eye off the ball.
It was Gullota, Magangno and Schmitt that got the county in to its fiscal mess and now with two of them left, it looks like it is headed back that way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by haywood16
Suozzi was just ass bad and blew the surplus on the county seat patronage jobs for his friends. You can't trust any of them
We never really had a surplus in Nassau county. Under Suozzi, Nassau came back from the edge of bankruptcy, thanks in part to timely cuts, a bit of a property tax hike and some help from the state.
The only real problem Suozzi had was that he wanted to use the County exec seat to run for Governor and as a result took his eye off the ball.
It was Gullota, Magangno and Schmitt that got the county in to its fiscal mess and now with two of them left, it looks like it is headed back that way.
Suozzi blew 70 million reserve fund on the county seat. Complete waste of money we could use to fund the current budget.
Suozzi blew 70 million reserve fund on the county seat. Complete waste of money we could use to fund the current budget.
Suozzi didn’t blow the reserve fund; the surplus in 2000 was due to capital transferred to the county from NIFA as a one shot. He also ran surpluses in 2006 and some of the other years and the counties bond rating were continuously upgraded. The loss of sales tax during the downturn of the economy in 2000 and 2008 had a large impact on the budget as it accounts for 30-40% of the county income, over a billion dollars.
Suozzi should have done more in the way of cutting government and should not have borrowed to pay the tax certiorari but overall was a big improvement over past administrations. Continuously borrowing money is just making the situation worse. Hopefully Mangano will come to his senses, he should have learned from his mistakes on the legislature during the Gulotta administration.
Let's not forget suozzi's 60% raise for himself and rice etc
I bet they still don't make as much as many school superintendents on LI ... especially the superintendents that retire at six figure (200K, 300K, etc.) pensions and then are allowed to take a job as a superintendent at another district for a six figure salary ($200K and up).
When it comes to complaining about what is being done with the property taxes, I agree that Suozzi certain was free with money for himself and cronies, but remember the County (although we are talking about Nassau's CE this goes for Suffolk too) only gets a small portion of your total property tax dollars.
Suozzi didn’t blow the reserve fund; the surplus in 2000 was due to capital transferred to the county from NIFA as a one shot. He also ran surpluses in 2006 and some of the other years and the counties bond rating were continuously upgraded. The loss of sales tax during the downturn of the economy in 2000 and 2008 had a large impact on the budget as it accounts for 30-40% of the county income, over a billion dollars.
Suozzi should have done more in the way of cutting government and should not have borrowed to pay the tax certiorari but overall was a big improvement over past administrations. Continuously borrowing money is just making the situation worse. Hopefully Mangano will come to his senses, he should have learned from his mistakes on the legislature during the Gulotta administration.
Haywood is correct. Suozzi blew almost 70 million renovating the Old Courthouse under the mistaken impression that he would be getting some federal funding reimbursement for it. Never happened.
The only reason that Suozzi had any money at all was his monstrous tax hikes and an infusion of more than 100 million from NIFA. And he promptly blew through all of it by hiring almost 400 non-civil service personnel from NYC and other places outside Nassau to appease the Democratic leaders in his bid for the governorship.
Haywood is correct. Suozzi blew almost 70 million renovating the Old Courthouse under the mistaken impression that he would be getting some federal funding reimbursement for it. Never happened.
The only reason that Suozzi had any money at all was his monstrous tax hikes and an infusion of more than 100 million from NIFA. And he promptly blew through all of it by hiring almost 400 non-civil service personnel from NYC and other places outside Nassau to appease the Democratic leaders in his bid for the governorship.
I would not say that money spent on the old courthouse was money blown although assuming $70 million is correct that is extremely high. The courthouse was symbol of government waste and abuse in the 1990's under Gulotta & Mondello along with all the other buildings that were allowed to deteriorate while they lined their pockets. At least in this case had something to show for it even though way overpriced.
Yes Suozzi hired from outside the area and I disagreed with some of jhis appointment but still he was an marked improvement over Gulotta and the total corruption and inefficency that existed in the 90's. Mangano has certainly not changed that practice and has in fact kept many of those appointees from the Suozzi administration. his philosophy seems to be not much different than Gulotta, freeze taxes and take out loans.
I would not say that money spent on the old courthouse was money blown although assuming $70 million is correct that is extremely high. The courthouse was symbol of government waste and abuse in the 1990's under Gulotta & Mondello along with all the other buildings that were allowed to deteriorate while they lined their pockets. At least in this case had something to show for it even though way overpriced.
Yes Suozzi hired from outside the area and I disagreed with some of jhis appointment but still he was an marked improvement over Gulotta and the total corruption and inefficency that existed in the 90's. Mangano has certainly not changed that practice and has in fact kept many of those appointees from the Suozzi administration. his philosophy seems to be not much different than Gulotta, freeze taxes and take out loans.
Agreed. Look Suozzi was far from perfect, he made his share of mistakes, and could have done things better, however at least he tried to make some changes. With Mangano, along with Schmitt as Presiding Officer we seem to do be headed down the EXACT same path we were under Gullotta. Which was FAR worse under Gullotta than it was under Suozzi.
This is especially true when you consider that the downturn of the county finances during the last couple years of Suozzi administration, were directly related to the national economy falling off the cliff in 2008. Could he have done things better? Perhaps, but the downturn had much more to do with the national economy imploding than mismanagement.
As far as the county finances under Gullotta, hell we were on the verge of getting our finances taken over by the state when Gullotta left office. And all of those problems sure as hell weren't economy related as it came during the boom of all booms. Could you imagine how insane things would have gotten in the late 90's with our county finances if we went through the fiscal disaster in the county that we had during a bad economy?? Dear God that would have been pure insanity, yet Mangano and Schmitt somehow haven't seemed to learn from that disaster. Not surprising to anyone that paid any attention to their records in the legislature during Gullotta's tenure, but the fact Mangano seems intent on following Gullotta's footprint to a T is DEEPLY troubling.
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