When considering Governor Pataki's so-called Nassau County bailout plan, it's important to understand that it's neither an actual bailout nor an actual plan. It's a guideline and timetable to create a plan, and a promise of limited aid if the plan is in fact created. It's also the kind of guideline and timetable that has been lacking and needed in the local scene.

Unlike incorporated and chartered municipalities such as cities and villages, counties are technically subdivisions of the state government. Counties play a direct and vital role in the delivery of state services and the enforcement of state laws. Although for political reasons, the state government has largely been an interested observer in the last year or so of the Nassau budget debacle, there is no way that Albany will sit back and watch the second most populous county outside of New York City go bankrupt. It would be like watching a hand wither and fall off. It would also put the brakes on credit for other counties and public entities, which would turn the Nassau credit crisis into a regional one. The governor will send in paratroopers before he lets Nassau locals sink their $2 billion-a-year ship, regardless of which political party might be nominally in charge or substantially to blame.

There have been limited state bailouts of Nassau County before, thought not on this scale. In 1991 and 1992, county finances were a mess and required dispensations from Albany. Nassau's high sales tax was a type of state bailout in the '70s and '80s. A generation of Nassau Democratic legislators voted and argued against extending or raising that county sales tax each year.

The governor's outline has helped jump-start discussions and debates over what to do about Nassau's financial situation. In the past few weeks, County Executive Gulotta and both county legislative caucuses fired off limited plans and associated blame with little subsequent movement or action. Insiders and observers began to get the queasy feeling that the whole thing was starting to drift away. Had key Wall Street raters not moved their deadline for action back to June 30, Nassau's bonds would already have been downgraded into the basement. Governor Pataki and his advisor, Frank Zarb, have focused the conversation again.

The actual "enabling legislation" for the Pataki-Zarb scenario has not yet been submitted, which is no small thing. The actual language of the proposed law will be where the hardball really begins. The events which will trigger direct state control of Nassau's finances, the participation of the state comptroller in the process and other points must be rapidly hammered out in Albany.

A financial control board of any type is not a plan. It's maintenance after a plan has been enacted. This seems to have eluded some of our local officials for the past several months. A plan is a list of the actual dollars which will be saved or taxed, the programs which will be reorganized or dissolved, the workers who will be redistributed or released. With an outline in place, then the work on the actual plan can begin.