The Nassau County Mangano-Kaiman Watch, February 24, 2014 – By George J. Marlin
PREAMBLE
I had the privilege of serving the people of Nassau County as a Director of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority (NIFA), a New York State financial oversight and control board, for four years. During most of my tenure as a NIFA Director, Nassau was in a control period because the County had failed to adequately address its fiscal deficit.
Since the NIFA control period began on January 26, 2011, the County has failed to stop illusory budget practices and to stop juggling money to keep on the budgetary lid. Instead of managing fiscal realities, County officials have governed by finger-pointing, issuing rosy press releases and attending ribbon-cutting events.
As a result of the County’s incompetence, negligence and indifference, the NFIA staff projects operating deficits of $157 million in fiscal year 2015, $190 million in 2016 and $255 million in 2017.
A control period is a Draconian measure that a locality should wish to avoid and if it occurs, to climb out of as quickly as possible. But not Nassau. It prefers to defer tough decisions and blithely go along la de da, tomorrow is another day.
The Nassau County Mangano-Kaiman Watch is dedicated to exposing fiscal and political shenanigans of County and NIFA officials and to waging a genuine reform campaign to prevent fiscal catastrophe and to restore taxpayer confidences.
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streetcornerconservative.com 
February 24, 2014 at 1:42 pm
George: the article in Newsday on Saturday referenced the addition of more red light cameras at schools could break the deadlock on the raises stalled by NIFA. Is Kaiman playing with a full deck. The pols fail to report the major down side of these cameras. Revenue was so upside down in Los Angeles that the entire program was a drain on the city budget and eventually scrapped. And now Nassau County thinks that the extra cameras will drive $8mm in the first year and $12mm in succeeding years….The facts are that over time, the system gets top heavy with operational costs outweighing revenue upside. Even more disturbing is that the pols think by instituting a punitive tax that they can kick the can down the road once again!
Bob Dann