Post by onthejob on Aug 24, 2013 0:42:21 GMT -5
Newsday in 1999 mocking Gulotta for freezing taxes. Not a peep these days.
www.newsday.com/as-nassau-burns-gulotta-intones-mantra-1.388633
As Nassau Burns, Gulotta Intones Mantra
February 23, 1999 by Lawrence C. Levy /
HE'S ONE of those guys you can't insult or shame, no matter how hard you
try.
Call Nassau County Executive Tom Gulotta a coward for
confront a fiscal crisis that has made him and one of the nation's
richest counties a joke, and he'll tell you he has "cut or frozen the
general county tax for seven consecutive years."
Call this Republican shameless for hiding behind the real heroes he
used as props and applause lines in his State of the County speech on
Monday, and he'll say he has "cut or frozen the general county tax for
seven consecutive years."
Call him an insult to the memory of his father, Frank, a
tough-minded district attorney and judge who fought to become the first
Italian American to win countywide office - and who did not raise his
son Tom to be either stupid or spineless - and you can bet he'll say:
"I have cut or frozen the general county tax for seven consecutive
years."
And so he has, but at a terrible cost to himself, his party and
his county.
At a time when virtually every county in the state is enjoying
unprecedented surpluses, plumping up long-empty reserve funds and
building long-delayed projects, Nassau is choking on more than $300
million in total deficits for 1998 and 1999. Without having built
anything of note, the county's debt load has climbed beyond $2 billion
and is rising. That's mostly because Gulotta chose tax cuts to promote
his political career without having the money to pay for them.
On Monday, he talked about helping to make the county more
affordable for the young and old, yet he has left a legacy of debt and
deception that has done more to threaten their future - as well as
everybody else's - than any small annual tax increase or service cut.
And despite the obvious need to dramatically raise taxes and cut
spending, he chose again in his speech to duck the details of what he
will propose except for one: He will continue to cut or freeze the
county's general fund property tax.
Never mind that other county tax funds will rise sharply this year,
and probably in future years. Never mind that everyone from Wall Street
to Main Street is waiting for a sign of leadership. Gulotta won't stop
playing his same game. Once again, while he cuts ribbons, he will leave
the hard work to others who have a future in the county.
His Republican colleagues are fed up with him. In fact, the
only reason the party hasn't used its awesome powers of persuasion to
get him to leave office two years early is Henry Hyde, Kenneth Starr and
a quirk of the political calendar. If Gulotta left, there would be a
county executive race in November and Republicans are afraid of a
backlash from voters over the impeachment and several local scandals.
Gulotta's self-serving hands-off and weak-willed style has left
more than a fiscal mess, of course. The FBI is deep into claims that the
Nassau Jail, run by a Gulotta appointee, has become a "torture chamber"
where inmates are routinely beaten and, in at least one recent case,
killed. Despite millions of dollars paid out in claims to inmates who
have sued the county over treatment, Gulotta either didn't see or didn't
want to see the warnings. Maybe it's because confronting it meant
angering a powerful union or political leader.
The feds are also poking into a failed scheme to save the county
millions in health insurance costs but has ended up costing many
millions more. Close cronies of Gulotta's are in the middle of the mess.
Despite many warning signs that the deal was sour, Gulotta preferred to
believe what he wanted - that the savings would be there to pass along
to taxpayers.
But he is still smiling for the cameras, still spinning his own rosy
reality on what the Democrats call Planet Gulotta. You can't insult him
or shame him, his critics have come to learn. You can't really work with
him, his allies now know. The only thing they can do now is ignore him
as they risk their own careers to clean up Gulotta's droppings.
www.newsday.com/as-nassau-burns-gulotta-intones-mantra-1.388633
As Nassau Burns, Gulotta Intones Mantra
February 23, 1999 by Lawrence C. Levy /
HE'S ONE of those guys you can't insult or shame, no matter how hard you
try.
Call Nassau County Executive Tom Gulotta a coward for
confront a fiscal crisis that has made him and one of the nation's
richest counties a joke, and he'll tell you he has "cut or frozen the
general county tax for seven consecutive years."
Call this Republican shameless for hiding behind the real heroes he
used as props and applause lines in his State of the County speech on
Monday, and he'll say he has "cut or frozen the general county tax for
seven consecutive years."
Call him an insult to the memory of his father, Frank, a
tough-minded district attorney and judge who fought to become the first
Italian American to win countywide office - and who did not raise his
son Tom to be either stupid or spineless - and you can bet he'll say:
"I have cut or frozen the general county tax for seven consecutive
years."
And so he has, but at a terrible cost to himself, his party and
his county.
At a time when virtually every county in the state is enjoying
unprecedented surpluses, plumping up long-empty reserve funds and
building long-delayed projects, Nassau is choking on more than $300
million in total deficits for 1998 and 1999. Without having built
anything of note, the county's debt load has climbed beyond $2 billion
and is rising. That's mostly because Gulotta chose tax cuts to promote
his political career without having the money to pay for them.
On Monday, he talked about helping to make the county more
affordable for the young and old, yet he has left a legacy of debt and
deception that has done more to threaten their future - as well as
everybody else's - than any small annual tax increase or service cut.
And despite the obvious need to dramatically raise taxes and cut
spending, he chose again in his speech to duck the details of what he
will propose except for one: He will continue to cut or freeze the
county's general fund property tax.
Never mind that other county tax funds will rise sharply this year,
and probably in future years. Never mind that everyone from Wall Street
to Main Street is waiting for a sign of leadership. Gulotta won't stop
playing his same game. Once again, while he cuts ribbons, he will leave
the hard work to others who have a future in the county.
His Republican colleagues are fed up with him. In fact, the
only reason the party hasn't used its awesome powers of persuasion to
get him to leave office two years early is Henry Hyde, Kenneth Starr and
a quirk of the political calendar. If Gulotta left, there would be a
county executive race in November and Republicans are afraid of a
backlash from voters over the impeachment and several local scandals.
Gulotta's self-serving hands-off and weak-willed style has left
more than a fiscal mess, of course. The FBI is deep into claims that the
Nassau Jail, run by a Gulotta appointee, has become a "torture chamber"
where inmates are routinely beaten and, in at least one recent case,
killed. Despite millions of dollars paid out in claims to inmates who
have sued the county over treatment, Gulotta either didn't see or didn't
want to see the warnings. Maybe it's because confronting it meant
angering a powerful union or political leader.
The feds are also poking into a failed scheme to save the county
millions in health insurance costs but has ended up costing many
millions more. Close cronies of Gulotta's are in the middle of the mess.
Despite many warning signs that the deal was sour, Gulotta preferred to
believe what he wanted - that the savings would be there to pass along
to taxpayers.
But he is still smiling for the cameras, still spinning his own rosy
reality on what the Democrats call Planet Gulotta. You can't insult him
or shame him, his critics have come to learn. You can't really work with
him, his allies now know. The only thing they can do now is ignore him
as they risk their own careers to clean up Gulotta's droppings.
