"Take a cleaver to it." That was Legislator Barbara Johnson's advice on dealing with the upcoming Nassau County budget, which now shows a deficit of $160 to $180 million for 1998 and $125 million for 1999.

Earlier, Johnson and other Democrats had responded to County Commissioner Thomas R. Gulotta's recent state of the county address.

Johnson, who represents the Roslyn area, criticized the speech for lacking "initiatives and solutions" to the county's budget woes.

"The citizens of this county are in need of a hero in Nassau County government to repair a budget that has been so totally destroyed over the years," the legislator claimed. "People were waiting to hear solutions, but that was not evident in the speech."

According to Johnson, the county executive's proposals fall "far short" of the "real solutions" needed.

"The county is plagued by one-shot revenue deals, an FBI investigation targeted at the employees health insurance program and a federal investigation of conditions at the Nassau County jail," she said.

In an interview with the Roslyn News, Legislator Johnson also criticized a proposed one percent mortgage-recording tax.

"I am totally opposed to it," she said. "He [Mr. Gulotta] wants to keep people on Long Island, he wants young people to come back to the island. You don't do it that way."

A member of the Democratic Party minority, Johnson voted for the Republican-majority budget in 1997-98, but not for this year's package. "I thought that was okay," she said of the 1997 vote and that budget in general. But she attacked the most recent budget, calling it a "Band-Aid" approach to current problems.

"We need to go after the budget with a cleaver," she said. "There's no other way."

Continuing, Johnson assailed what she termed as an overwrought "patronage" system in the county government.

Concerning legal matters, the county, she added, could save "hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars" if the Gulotta administration used the 60 attorneys it has on hand.

The attorneys, Johnson claimed, do "no work," instead they stay on the county payroll for three years before moving on to larger private firms.

The county, she added, has been using "outside lawyers"---corporate, general, and civil attorneys---those who make large contributions to the Republican Party to do work that county attorneys should be performing.

It would be better, the legislator said, if the county gave small, incremental raises for county attorneys. That way they would stay and the county would save money by not paying for outside lawyer fees.

For an example of political patronage, Johnson criticized the new head of the Nassau County hospitals, Eric Rosenbloom, as a local GOP leader who "doesn't know anything" about hospital maintenance. Rosenbloom is the GOP's executive leader in Hicksville and this, Johnson claimed, is the only reason he received the job. According to the legislator, "millions" of dollars could be saved by doing away with such a system.

Johnson also blasted the recent proposal to confiscate cars of intoxicated drivers. "Grabbing cars is illegal," she said, ridiculing the idea as "Gulotta's used car lot." The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), she noted, will oppose the plan in court.

In all, the county, the legislator said, "needs a different kind of government," one that isn't "wasteful of tax dollars."

On the subject, Johnson admitted that because of the deficit, more tax increases are on the way. Gulotta has mentioned taxes on 911 calls from cellular phones, the county's collection of parking ticket fees, and on that old reliable, cigarettes, all in addition to the mortgage tax.

But before raising taxes, the GOP, Johnson said, needs to "clean out [its own] house," adding that until the current system of patronage ends, "you will never have a balanced budget."