Post by backdoorit on Nov 24, 2014 22:47:00 GMT -5
NIFA OK's Nassau's budget -- after pledge to stop borrowing for operating costs in 4 years
Nassau's fiscal control board Monday night approved the county's 2015 budget, but extracted a new pledge from officials to eliminate borrowing for day-to-day expenses within four years.
The Nassau Interim Finance Authority board voted 7-0 to adopt the county's multiyear plan, including the $2.98 billion budget for 2015 that contains a 3.4 percent property tax hike. County lawmakers had eliminated the increase last month, but County Executive Edward Mangano recently restored it.
NIFA supported Mangano's decision, having criticized the tactics chosen by the county legislature to offset the $31 million in added tax revenue. Jon Kaiman, NIFA's chairman, said the administration was working toward long-term budget balance -- even as it weans itself off heavy reliance on borrowing.
"The county has to be able to bring in the same amount of money it spends," Kaiman said. "We'll work with them to get there, one way or another."
The board Monday night also approved $125 million in bonds to begin paying backlogged property tax refunds, but rejected the county's request to bond $11.5 million to meet a recent class-action lawsuit judgment related to jail strip searches -- if its ongoing appeal is rejected.
Borrowing for judgments and settlements, said NIFA member Chris Wright, "is probably the easiest bad habit we can break for the county."
Mangano in 2011 had set 2015 as the target to end borrowing for operating costs, but Nassau's first submitted multiyear plan maintained the practice.
At NIFA's request, Mangano submitted a revised plan pledging to stop operating expense borrowing by 2018, meeting board requirements for budget balance that would end its control period. The new plan reduces borrowing estimates for tax refunds from $475 million through 2018 to $305 million.
This comes as state legislation set to take effect in 2017 will overhaul Nassau's commercial property tax grievance system, which officials say will save up to $80 million a year.
"This is a critical step toward descending Nassau's borrowing schedule to zero as other assessment reforms take place," Mangano spokesman Brian Nevin said of the revised multiyear plan approved Monday night.
Wright called the revised plan, which also proposes a fund to pay for future lawsuits, "a framework for which we can hold the county accountable."
NIFA's budget approval came over the objection of county Democrats, who called Mangano's vetoing of the legislative amendments that removed the tax increase illegal.
In a letter to NIFA, Democratic counsel Peter Clines argued that the county charter only gives Mangano the power to issue line-item vetoes for expense items, not revenue measures or tax levy amendments.
He added that Democrats could file a lawsuit to "have the [tax] increase declared void."
County Attorney Carnell Foskey called Clines' allegations "completely without merit."
Nassau's fiscal control board Monday night approved the county's 2015 budget, but extracted a new pledge from officials to eliminate borrowing for day-to-day expenses within four years.
The Nassau Interim Finance Authority board voted 7-0 to adopt the county's multiyear plan, including the $2.98 billion budget for 2015 that contains a 3.4 percent property tax hike. County lawmakers had eliminated the increase last month, but County Executive Edward Mangano recently restored it.
NIFA supported Mangano's decision, having criticized the tactics chosen by the county legislature to offset the $31 million in added tax revenue. Jon Kaiman, NIFA's chairman, said the administration was working toward long-term budget balance -- even as it weans itself off heavy reliance on borrowing.
"The county has to be able to bring in the same amount of money it spends," Kaiman said. "We'll work with them to get there, one way or another."
The board Monday night also approved $125 million in bonds to begin paying backlogged property tax refunds, but rejected the county's request to bond $11.5 million to meet a recent class-action lawsuit judgment related to jail strip searches -- if its ongoing appeal is rejected.
Borrowing for judgments and settlements, said NIFA member Chris Wright, "is probably the easiest bad habit we can break for the county."
Mangano in 2011 had set 2015 as the target to end borrowing for operating costs, but Nassau's first submitted multiyear plan maintained the practice.
At NIFA's request, Mangano submitted a revised plan pledging to stop operating expense borrowing by 2018, meeting board requirements for budget balance that would end its control period. The new plan reduces borrowing estimates for tax refunds from $475 million through 2018 to $305 million.
This comes as state legislation set to take effect in 2017 will overhaul Nassau's commercial property tax grievance system, which officials say will save up to $80 million a year.
"This is a critical step toward descending Nassau's borrowing schedule to zero as other assessment reforms take place," Mangano spokesman Brian Nevin said of the revised multiyear plan approved Monday night.
Wright called the revised plan, which also proposes a fund to pay for future lawsuits, "a framework for which we can hold the county accountable."
NIFA's budget approval came over the objection of county Democrats, who called Mangano's vetoing of the legislative amendments that removed the tax increase illegal.
In a letter to NIFA, Democratic counsel Peter Clines argued that the county charter only gives Mangano the power to issue line-item vetoes for expense items, not revenue measures or tax levy amendments.
He added that Democrats could file a lawsuit to "have the [tax] increase declared void."
County Attorney Carnell Foskey called Clines' allegations "completely without merit."