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Old 11-08-2010, 10:03 PM
 
Location: Massapequa Park
3,172 posts, read 6,727,320 times
Reputation: 1374

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Smash255 View Post
Perhaps slightly, but keep in mind the sales tax revenue only started to decline when the national economy took the hit. It was fine up until that point.

Also virtually none of those things, have anything to do with what the County Executive is responsible for or anyone in county government has any control over.
Fine=facade
Also, didn't Suozzi blow a nearly $1 Billion surplus the last 5 years?
Quote:
We need a several pronged approach to get everything back on track, doing the Gullotta is not the way to get there.
Yes, exactly what Mangano is doing. (fixing crooked assessment system - eliminating the county guarantee, cutting taxes where he can, cutting govt down to size to match reality, battling all the money-sucking leaches.

When it is realized that Government cannot create prosperity, they can only take from one person and give to the other...then we might start getting somewhere.
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Old 11-08-2010, 10:59 PM
 
Location: Long Island (chief in S Farmingdale)
22,140 posts, read 19,367,304 times
Reputation: 5279
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pequaman View Post
Fine=facade
Also, didn't Suozzi blow a nearly $1 Billion surplus the last 5 years?


Yes, exactly what Mangano is doing. (fixing crooked assessment system - eliminating the county guarantee, cutting taxes where he can, cutting govt down to size to match reality, battling all the money-sucking leaches.

When it is realized that Government cannot create prosperity, they can only take from one person and give to the other...then we might start getting somewhere.
The surplus was lost as a direct result of the sales tax revenue issues because of the recession.


As far as what Mangano is doing, he is simply shifting costs around. That is not going to solve anything and Moody's just dropped Nassau's rating as a result of the budget.
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Old 11-08-2010, 11:11 PM
 
Location: Massapequa Park
3,172 posts, read 6,727,320 times
Reputation: 1374
Quote:
Originally Posted by Smash255 View Post
The surplus was lost as a direct result of the sales tax revenue issues because of the recession.


As far as what Mangano is doing, he is simply shifting costs around. That is not going to solve anything and Moody's just dropped Nassau's rating as a result of the budget.

The surplus started depleting in hundred+ million$ chunks starting n 2004 all the way through to last year. A big reason is stuff like MTA conductors abusing taxpayers by earning 3x their base salary in Overtime. How is that justified?? This is widespread throughout the rotten county.

The surplus depleting in '04-10 means Nassau's problems started around the time they jacked up property taxes leaving residents with 0 disposable income. Meanwhile the rest of the economy was in an artificial boom. It's a devastating cycle (as explained 2 posts ago) when you double people's taxes that rapidly. - [ You double people's taxes over 7 yrs and increase the burden on businesses with new taxes like the famous new MTA bailout tax and this is the end result = Zero disposable income, lower payroll taxes, increased employees health care tax burden, businesses and jobs fleeing the NY area, lower payroll taxes. No one wants to (or can) spend any money and businesses are shrinking themselves. ]

If it's just shifting costs around then why are the schools so against it?

A- Because they're afraid that they're going to actually have to live within their means after having to pay their fair share of the refunds. Maybe now admins & others jacking up their salaries to obscene levels will be exposed to everyone. Don't give me that "oh but it will hurt the children" nonsense.. how naive do you think people are. Supers & everyone else should not be making 2x-6x median income!

Last edited by Pequaman; 11-08-2010 at 11:20 PM..
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Old 11-09-2010, 01:08 AM
 
Location: Long Island (chief in S Farmingdale)
22,140 posts, read 19,367,304 times
Reputation: 5279
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pequaman View Post
The surplus started depleting in hundred+ million$ chunks starting n 2004 all the way through to last year. A big reason is stuff like MTA conductors abusing taxpayers by earning 3x their base salary in Overtime. How is that justified?? This is widespread throughout the rotten county.

The surplus depleting in '04-10 means Nassau's problems started around the time they jacked up property taxes leaving residents with 0 disposable income. Meanwhile the rest of the economy was in an artificial boom. It's a devastating cycle (as explained 2 posts ago) when you double people's taxes that rapidly. - [ You double people's taxes over 7 yrs and increase the burden on businesses with new taxes like the famous new MTA bailout tax and this is the end result = Zero disposable income, lower payroll taxes, increased employees health care tax burden, businesses and jobs fleeing the NY area, lower payroll taxes. No one wants to (or can) spend any money and businesses are shrinking themselves. ]

If it's just shifting costs around then why are the schools so against it?

A- Because they're afraid that they're going to actually have to live within their means after having to pay their fair share of the refunds. Maybe now admins & others jacking up their salaries to obscene levels will be exposed to everyone. Don't give me that "oh but it will hurt the children" nonsense.. how naive do you think people are. Supers & everyone else should not be making 2x-6x median income!
You are talking about things that have absolutely nothing to do with the county. The doubling of the taxes has nothing to do with Nassau County, nor does the absurdity that went on with the MTA and the double OT and all that crap.

No question its a problem, it needs a major overhaul, I agree with you on that. However, we can't get confused of who is in charge of what.

As far as shifting the costs around, all that it really accomplished is taken it off the county's books and putting it on the towns's and schools. All that is going to happen with that instead of the taxpayers paying the county for it, they will pay someone else for it. It was dressed up as hey look taxpayers, you don't have to pay for this anymore, meanwhile of course the taxpayers will still be footing the bill for it, the only difference is the section of the tax bill it is on.

The county, regardless of if its headed by Suozzi, Mangano or anyone else has no control over the schools, none. The only thing they could really do is push for consolidation and hope Albany listens, outside of that I don't care who the hell is the County Executive, it could be Superman, they simply have no control over it.

Fact of the matter is we need to learn from the mistakes we have made in the past, not repeat them. The current budget pushed by Mangano and Majority Leader Schmitt are pretty much the same things they voted in favor of when Gullotta was in office that put the county at junk bond status, and almost had our finances taken over by the state.
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Old 11-09-2010, 05:17 AM
 
939 posts, read 1,840,270 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Smash255 View Post
The differences between the financial problems now and the financial problems the county faced 10 years ago, is the current financial problems are a direct result of lagging sales tax revenue as a result of the downturn in the economy. The issues back then were pure and utter incompetence that had nothing to do with economic issues or lagging sales tax revenue.

Even if you want to put the blame on Suozzi, following the exact same path Gullotta followed which put us in MUCH more dire situations than our current issues is a recipe for immense disaster.
It's interesting how you keep trying to absolve Suozzi of any responsibility for the current financial mess of the county. While the economy certainly had an impact on the county, Suozzi managed to blow through his entire surplus during the good years of his two terms. He spent money wantonly during his tenure in a vain attempt to garner support for higher office (like hiring hundreds of out-of-county democrats.) In fact, it was a badly-kept secret that Suozzi expected to be long gone from Nassau County by the time his financial house of cards collapsed.

You're quick to throw around the word "incompetence" but perhaps you're too young to remember the recession of the early 90's that Gulotta had to deal with (yes, he had bad economy issues, too.) Or maybe you forgot about it. As I've said before, it's real interesting how hindsight is so selective, particularly when it's tinged by political leanings.
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Old 11-09-2010, 05:26 AM
 
Location: Long Island
56,954 posts, read 25,922,798 times
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The county has become far too dependent on the sales tax and it developed out of their inability to cut expenses. There was a time when the sales tax was 4 % now it has escalated to 8.625%. The economy is far too unpredictable and sales tax has become the primary source of revenue, that is why we are in this situation. They use inflated predictions for the revenue and when they don't come through as usual they end up borrowing to cover the deficit.
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Old 11-09-2010, 05:53 AM
 
Location: Long Island
56,954 posts, read 25,922,798 times
Reputation: 15479
Quote:
Originally Posted by pdcnret View Post
It's interesting how you keep trying to absolve Suozzi of any responsibility for the current financial mess of the county. While the economy certainly had an impact on the county, Suozzi managed to blow through his entire surplus during the good years of his two terms. He spent money wantonly during his tenure in a vain attempt to garner support for higher office (like hiring hundreds of out-of-county democrats.) In fact, it was a badly-kept secret that Suozzi expected to be long gone from Nassau County by the time his financial house of cards collapsed.

You're quick to throw around the word "incompetence" but perhaps you're too young to remember the recession of the early 90's that Gulotta had to deal with (yes, he had bad economy issues, too.) Or maybe you forgot about it. As I've said before, it's real interesting how hindsight is so selective, particularly when it's tinged by political leanings.
I wouldn’t blame the recession for the problems in the early 90’s but rather on gross mismanagement and corruption; the recession of that period is not even close to what we experienced the last 10 years. We just had the second worst economic downturn in history. Certainly Suozzi should have done a better job with cutting payroll but still no comparison to what he inherited from Gulotta.

One of his last budget proposals in Sept 2000:

"The pessimism deepened today as Mr. Gulotta presented a four-year budget plan that included a projected $207 million deficit for 2004, and as he sought costly pay increases for county police officers who are already among the highest paid in the nation. Unless the county comes up with a credible balanced budget plan by mid-October it faces a takeover of its finances by the Nassau Interim Financing Authority, known as NIFA. The state established the agency to help the county restructure its debt."

In Nassau County, Doubts Grow on Avoiding State Takeover - New York Times
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Old 11-09-2010, 08:00 AM
 
939 posts, read 1,840,270 times
Reputation: 509
Quote:
Originally Posted by Goodnight View Post
I wouldn’t blame the recession for the problems in the early 90’s but rather on gross mismanagement and corruption; the recession of that period is not even close to what we experienced the last 10 years. We just had the second worst economic downturn in history. Certainly Suozzi should have done a better job with cutting payroll but still no comparison to what he inherited from Gulotta.

One of his last budget proposals in Sept 2000:

"The pessimism deepened today as Mr. Gulotta presented a four-year budget plan that included a projected $207 million deficit for 2004, and as he sought costly pay increases for county police officers who are already among the highest paid in the nation. Unless the county comes up with a credible balanced budget plan by mid-October it faces a takeover of its finances by the Nassau Interim Financing Authority, known as NIFA. The state established the agency to help the county restructure its debt."

In Nassau County, Doubts Grow on Avoiding State Takeover - New York Times
And Mangano inherited a $230 million budget deficit from Suozzi. Point is that while Gulotta had his share of problems other than the economy, Suozzi doesn't get a pass on financial mismanagement. After all, any idiot can balance a budget with a 20% tax hike and $100 million from NIFA. But only Suozzi could blow through a surplus, too.
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Old 11-09-2010, 10:32 AM
Status: " You’re not getting another penny out of me" (set 10 days ago)
 
19,737 posts, read 20,545,943 times
Reputation: 16443
There's an old saying...
"you can't beat a dead horse to death, but you can keep beating the carcass"
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Old 11-09-2010, 11:52 AM
 
939 posts, read 1,840,270 times
Reputation: 509
Quote:
Originally Posted by hotkarl View Post
There's an old saying...
"you can't beat a dead horse to death, but you can keep beating the carcass"
You're absolutely right. The problem here is that there are some people who just can't accept the fact that the democrats in Nassau County were sent packing last year. Just as in this year's election, there's a reason for it.
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