Whether it was the baseball frenzy caused by the possibility of a Subway Series or just her usual manner of speech, Judy Jacobs frequently used the metaphor of "stepping up to the plate" in a Monday interview about the Nassau County budget. Ms. Jacobs, the Democratic Majority Leader of the Nassau County Legislature, said that the last few weeks have been "heartbreaking," as the county lost many of its longtime leaders to early retirement incentives. She mentioned specifically Parks Commissioner John B. Kiernan, Senior Citizen Affairs Commissioner Rena Iacono and Consumer Affairs Commissioner James Picken. "It's a brain drain," she said. Ms. Jacobs and her staff have been working day and night to complete the majority budget which was officially presented to NIFA (Nassau Interim Financial Authority) Thursday, Oct 19.

County Executive Thomas Gulotta submitted his budget to the legislature last month and Ms. Jacobs said that the legislators found it unacceptable. Gulotta's budget had cut 300 jobs, which Jacobs said was "inexcusable. These are the people who do the work, shovel the snow, maintain the golf courses and the pools." She also said that Gulotta's proposal to cut $7 million of the Long Island Bus subsidy unacceptable. "New York State stepped up to the plate last year, thanks to Senator Dean Skelos and Assemblyman Tom DiNapoli. Over the long term I would like to lobby the state in a formal way to take over Long Island Bus, but in the short term we have to do it."

Speaking of the county's economy, she said "this is a crisis that is not going to go away. NIFA looms as a control board at any given moment." If the state-appointed MIFA board does not find the legislature's budget acceptable, it could impose a control board on the county which would take power away from the elected officials. Jacobs said that the solution to Nassau's problems has to be a combination of "cuts, consolidation, mergers and a tax increase." Acknowledging that no one likes to impose a tax increase, she pointed to the fact that the Gulotta budgets have had no tax raises in seven or eight years, relying instead on "one-shot deals," which often were not realized. Cuts alone will not accomplish the job, she said. "If every so-called 'patronage' job was eliminated," she said, " we would only save three or four million. We have already taken away unnecessary cars." If the Gulotta budget were implemented, the Public Works Department has told the legislature that they would be able to handle two snowstorms next winter, but not three. "We have to be able to present a budget that we can defend and we have to be able to sleep at night." Preliminary drafts of the majority budget were given to Mr. Gulotta, NIFA and the Republican minority on Monday. The Gulotta budget included a three percent tax increase, which would amount to about $30 additional taxes for the average taxpayer. The Democrats' increase was not revealed as of this writing, but it said to be in double digits. It is important to note that this is an increase only on the county portion of the tax bill, or 19 percent.

Returning to the issue of taxes, she said that if the county had raised the taxes over the past seven years just by the cost of living, it would be seeing a surplus now and "we (the Democrats) wouldn't have been elected." She went on to say that when Governor George Pataki announced the creation of NIFA and a state program to help Nassau he said that no tax increase would be necessary. That was before it developed that the "debt service was out of whack by an additional $70 million."

Defending the proposed tax increase, without stating how high it would be, she said, "Look at Oyster Bay. John Venditto raised the taxes and said, 'we weren't going to make it without an increase.'"

She spoke with pride of her team, especially the young Democrats who were elected last November. "They have stepped up to the plate and hit a home run. These young people have made difficult decisions. They are being held accountable. These are great people who understand that this could backfire next election."

Under Gulotta's budget, Jacobs said that the Youth Board almost disappeared, Child Care and Long Island Bus were devastated. "If we want people off welfare we have to give them support services. That's where NIFA doesn't get involved. Their interest is quantitative, not qualitative. Policy is not their mandate. It would be difficult for them to reject a balanced budget. As long as we get there with good accounting practices, I can't believe they would reject it." Ms. Jacobs said that the Legislature would not vote for the police contract that Mr. Gulotta negotiated, because its members do not believe that its predicted savings will be realized. "He will just have to negotiate harder," she said. "The county is in crisis and this is not business as usual. Still, I don't believe you can give people a decimated county."