The twisted tapestry of Nassau County's financial predicament continues to be unfolded. This week two Democrats have challenged the constitutionality of the Nassau County Traffic and Violations Bureau. The incredible story of this agency reveals that there is presently a backlog of 131,000 traffic tickets and 251,000 parking tickets which, if collected, would bring in more than $7 million to the cash-strapped county. We recall that when this agency was established 10 years ago, it was supposed to ease the very same backlog which the District Attorney's office had found impossible to deal with. This is an important local story as well as a general one. When the CLC held a meeting on the subject of traffic and parking in December, the sixth precinct commander, George Morrish, spoke of how many parking tickets were issued by his department in Manhasset. What the larger story discloses is that many people just don't pay these tickets. We have all heard stories about the commuters who get off the train, find a parking ticket under the windshield wiper in the car parked on Plandome Road, and just tear it up and throw it away. The next day that commuter again parks on Plandome Road and then when you try to go to the store you can't find a place to park. If the Traffic and Parking Violations Bureau has a backlog of 251,000 such tickets, it's easy to see why scofflaws take a chance on never being caught. Nassau County is the only county in New York State to have such a bureau and apparently it isn't working very well. Stay tuned.

E.F.B.