Debate about how to deal with Nassau County's over $100 million budget deficit heated up this week, as County Executive Thomas Gulotta's deadline for submitting his fiscal year 2000 budget proposal drew near.

Just days after Republican majority legislators held a press conference pushing for $40 million in spending cuts to close the deficit, Gulotta last Friday announced his own cost-cutting measures, including plans to re-negotiate union pay increases and consolidate departments. And, Democratic legislators on Monday gave their take on the fiscal crisis, calling for an analysis of what they feel are patronage jobs, and the re-negotiation of personal service and law firm contracts as an alternative to cutting salaries of county workers.

Gulotta's deadline for submitting his fiscal year 2000 budget proposal was Wednesday, and as of press time Tuesday, the spending cuts he promised entailed the following:

-reduce the salaries of all top-level adminstrative officials by nine percent (cutting salaries 5 percent and taking back a 4 percent pay hike scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2000 for all non-union employees)

- a 5 percent pay cut for the county executive, Clerk Karen Murphy, Comptroller Fred Parola, and Chairman of the Board of Assessors Charles O'Shea.

-elimination of future accumulation of compensatory time, which is time off in lieu of pay earned by working overtime, for non-union workers.

-reduction in accumulation of vacation and sick days for future non-union workers.

-the re-negotiation of union contracts to achieve "greater productivity." The county executive will ask union employees to work an extra 15 minutes per day - from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., instead of the 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. workday currently in effect.

-contributions to the cost of health insurance from union employees are being sought by the county executive. He estimates that a 10 percent contribution would save $1.65 million annually.

Department consolidations were outlined by Gulotta as follows:

-eliminate the Department of General Services, which provides general building maintenance, by merging its functions into the Department of Parks and Recreation.

-merge Purchasing, which currently functions as a Division of the Department of General Services, with the Office of the Treasurer.

-consolidate the Department of Commerce and Industry, which the county executive said "serves a dual function with the Nassau County Planning Department."

-merge Affirmative Action with the Office of Minority Affairs.

Democratic legislators said during their press conference on Monday that the county executive should consider eliminating patronage jobs in order to close the deficit, rather than giving county employees a longer work day, forcing them to take a day off per month, or cutting their pay.

"We believe that there are dozens upon dozens of positions in this administration that need to be justified," Minority Leader Judy Jacobs (D, 16th L.D.) said in a release issued to the press. "Does the County Executive really need nine secretaries, and six 'special assistants'? We believe that there is a potential for nearly $6 million in savings to the county if someone will just take an honest look at patronage jobs."

Later, in an interview, Jacobs added that the press conference was prompted by the spending cut plans revealed by Gulotta.

"All these trial balloons that Gulotta had sent up all last week, really were very disturbing as far as we were concerned in the Democratic caucus," she said. "I mean, they were all directed at the workers of the county - whether it was a furlough day, or whether it was what we call 15 minutes of shame that Gulotta was calling for, or whatever. We felt that it was being misdirected."

Jacobs noted that it is only fair that the county executive take a look at cutting his "top-heavy administration," considering that he is expecting county workers to make concessions, and considering the one percent real estate transfer tax recently imposed by the county to address the deficit.

The minority leader pointed to other areas where the Democrats feel the county's expenses could be reduced. For example, she said that money could be saved by relying more on the county's in-house legal staff, as opposed to over-reliance on outside counsel, a practice which she said costs the county millions. In addition, she said costly overtime pay for personnel at the county jail could be eliminated by hiring a few more employees.

In light of the county executive's suggestion to review union workers' contracts, Democratic legislators also want Gulotta to ask each of the law firms with which the county has no-bid personal service contracts, to rebate 10 percent of the cost of the contract.

As part of a continuing effort to get a hearing and action on their proposal for an independent fiscal oversight board to scrutinize the county executive's budget, the Democrats also announced that they have collected more than 2,000 signatures in support of the measure. "We felt that it was time to say, to him, 'Look. We're watching. The public is watching. And everyone is demanding accountability," Jacobs said.

Bruce Blakeman (R, 7th L.D.), presiding officer of the Legislature, reserved comment on the spending cuts discussed this week until after the presentation of the county executive's proposed budget, which was scheduled to happen after press time. On Sept. 2, Blakeman led a press conference in which the Republican legislative majority urged Gulotta to include $40 million in spending cuts in his budget proposal, in order to plug the deficit. That plan, which called for 5 percent pay cuts for elected officials and non-union employees, as well as 10 percent cuts in personal services and legal services contracts, also recommended that Gulotta come up with $35 million in new revenue, and anticipated that the county would generate $50 million from the recently enacted, controversial real estate property transfer tax.

County Comptroller Fred Parola, when reached for comment on the spending cuts discussed this week, said Gulotta's promised pay cuts would not solve the deficit problem, nor would the elimination of what the Democrats term patronage jobs, but that they could be part of a larger budgetary approach. "If it fits within other responsible cutbacks and consolidations, as I've urged, then it could be a piece," he said. "You really need to do macro things to address a deficit as large as this one."

Such necessary steps, he said, include line-by-line analysis of spending, consolidation of services where possible, realistic predictions of possible savings from cost-cutting measures, imposing greater cost-accountability on departments, and generation of new revenues.

Large scale reforms are needed, according to the comptroller, for example in the area of school tax refund claims. Because the county acts as the tax collecting agent for all property taxes, including school district taxes, which comprise the bulk of a property owner's tax bill, the county also provides the refunds due when a taxpayer successfully sues for the overassessment of their property. This process costs the county several million dollars per year.

"I think that someone should call the school districts and indicate to them that the county of Nassau is going to fight to change the law, and not do their rateables with respect to property taxes, unless the school districts carry their own responsibility on the retro aspect of the judgements that come down on these business and commercial decisions," Parola said.

Parola added that he feels the county executive will be forced to raise property taxes to generate new revenue needed to close the deficit, which he said was partly caused by holding the line on taxes for eight consecutive years. "So they really need to do heavy homework, and they need to break eggs to get an answer," he said. "And you can't give everybody everything they want, every time. You've got to make hard decisions. And that's something this administration hasn't had the political will to do."