Nassau County Comptroller Fred Parola addressed the Community Liaison Committee of Manhasset on Friday, Feb. 19, at North Hills Village Hall. After a few introductory remarks, Comptroller Parola told his audience that the Nassau County budget "predicted a zero deficit. There could be a real deficit of $150 million. In three weeks we'll know the actual deficit." Then he turned his attention to "How did we get here?"

Mr. Parola gave six major reasons.

The first, he said, is the fact that Nassau County cut or stabilized property taxes in 10 of the last 11 years, causing a declining tax base. This was pleasant for homeowners during those years when Suffolk County, for example, was experiencing tax increases, but Nassau is about to pay for those tax cuts.

Secondly, he stated "We are literally being destroyed by our unions, especially the police unions." When Nassau County and its police union were unable to come to an agreement the dispute went to binding arbitration and the arbitrator gave the police increases of five percent a year. Parola, who had been a New York State Assemblyman for 15 years before becoming Nassau County Comptroller, conceded that it was the state legislature that passed the law requiring such binding arbitration. He now thinks the legislation was disastrous.

Thirdly, the county has depended on "one shot deals," such as land sales which helped a budget for one year but was not in the cards in future years.

Fourthly he said there has been an over reliance on unpredictable sources of revenue, such as sales taxes. In 1998 there was a short fall of $30 million between what the budget had foreseen and what was actually realized. "In order to make up for that we would need a seven percent increase in 1999," Parola said. "Our best shot is to get four percent and three percent is probably more likely."

In fifth place he cited the county's services and programs. Everyone likes services but Nassau must either reduce services or increase user fees if it is to put its financial house in order.

Finally Comptroller Parola addressed the issue that has been much in the news lately, the BPA health insurance contract which the county signed. Declining to say whether he believes there has been "wrongdoing of a criminal nature," and leaving that investigation to the FBI and the District Attorney, Parola said that the contract had been a disaster for Nassau. "There's a lesson here," he said. "If it looks too good to be true, it's probably too good to be true." Nassau County employees had previously been insured for their health by Empire Blue Cross which insures most of New York State's public employees. A decision was made to become self-insured, in the belief that the county would make major cost savings. "Republican lawyers, Democratic lawyers and the County attorney all looked at it," he said. "When we look at it now we see that it was an abysmal contract. BPA unilaterally made changes in the contract. There was negligence and wrongdoing. BPA claimed to be tight fisted. Actually they were incompetent." Among other indications of this incompetency is the fact that there were $3 to $4 million in multiple payments. In addition, to appease the unions, co-payments were lowered from $10 to $5. In other words, a person only had to pay $5 to a doctor per visit. Consequently, many people abused the system and made unnecessary doctor visits.

Having seen where we are and how we got here, Comptroller Parola turned his attention to where we should be going. He sees a positive sign in that county legislators are now sitting down with the county executive to discuss real problems. Mr. Parola said that Nassau must reappraise every program in terms of its actual cost, not its theoretical cost. The county must consider privatization, and must get the best professional advice possible before making a determination as to the advisability of privatizing county services. He also recommended "civilianization." In other words, put the cops out on the street and let lower-paid civilians sit at desks in the station house and run the computers. He believes there should be a moratorium on hiring and on new programs. He said he thinks the legislature should work to maximize grants from the state and federal governments. In good news for his audience, Parola said that "what's not on the table, what would be the last resort, would be increased property taxes."

In response to a question from Mr. William D'Antonio concerning the possibility of "full-value" reassessment of properties, Mr. Parola said that he would not predict what will happen but said that if there is such a change it would have to be phased in over 10 to 15 years and would have to have some safeguards. "The bottom line is fairness," he said.

Following the Comptroller's remarks, Town of North Hempstead Supervisor May Newburger gave brief highlights from her State of the Town address.