Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi delivered his quarterly report to the Nassau Interim Finance Authority (NIFA) last week. Citing initiatives outside the scope of his four-year recovery plan, the county executive showed revenue growth beyond what was projected at the beginning of the year and projected a surplus of $4.6 million for 2002.

"As the numbers show for this quarter, we are ahead of schedule, but we are still digging ourselves out of a very big hole. By looking at government in a new way, we have acted on smart government initiatives that target and eliminate waste and fraud. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, but it is still off in the distance," Suozzi said.

NIFA, Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman as well as Suozzi believe there are still serious threats to Nassau's fiscal recovery plan.

As was the case in the past, NIFA is reluctant to concede a Nassau surplus because of the bailout funds allocated to the county by the state.

In addition, parts of the four-year recovery plan hinge on initiatives that aren't set in stone. Part of the county executive's four-year plan calls for $65 million in union concessions as well as a $100 million savings achievement through early retirement incentives.

"To a large degree what transpires in the county in 2002, in particular, the outcome of labor negotiations, will determine the shape of the county's finances over the life of the multi-year financial plan," said Weitzman.

One pressing issue is the unresolved labor negotiations between the police personnel represented by the county's three police unions that are working without a labor agreement and the county. Weitzman's office estimated that each one percentage annual wage increase granted to police officers would result in increased salary costs of $6 million in 2002, $9.7 million in 2002 and $13 million in 2004. The comptroller's office expects some 224 police officers to retire this year resulting in a termination pay of $52.1 million, $27.6 million more than what is accounted for in the county's adopted budget.

The county executive believes one serious threat to the recovery plan includes the possible failure of the state legislature to pass the county's Sewer and Stormwater Authority, which would enable the county to achieve significant savings by issuing this debt through New York State's Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC) and taking advantage of its 33 percent to 50 percent interest subsidies. Suozzi said that police termination payments and projected flat sales tax revenues due to a stalled economy also pose problems for the plan.

However, Suozzi pointed to the workforce reduction program, reforms in the county's tax assessment review department, which, he believes will save almost $20 million; recovering more than $12 million in uncollected environmental grants; reducing overtime costs in general fund departments by almost $4.5 million; terminating outside contracts and bringing the work in-house; moving departments from leased to county-owned space and the recovery of Workers Compensation State funds as positive initiatives the county has implemented.

"We will continue cutting costs, consolidating county government and rooting out waste, fraud and abuse," Suozzi said.