Garden City resident Tracy Murray is challenging incumbent Legislator Vincent Muscarella in the 8th Legislative District race. The 8th District encompasses Bellerose, Garden City, Garden City South, Malverne and parts of Floral Park, West Hempstead and North Valley Stream. Murray, a former eight-year Manhattan Assistant District Attorney (ADA) who now works part-time from her home while raising a family, said she's stepping up to the challenge simply because she cares.

"I'm from Long Island. I grew up in Garden City and returned here to raise a family. I'm really tired of what's going on because I don't think people have the courage to stand up and make the hard decisions."

Particularly, Murray said people must make hard decisions about Nassau County's budget. "We're obviously in fiscal trouble and it's been going on for way too long. I think we're going to need to base our budgets on realistic projections, realistic costs and realistic revenues.

"For example, with his current budget, Gulotta expects a 4 percent increase in sales tax revenue, which even before Sept. 11, I don't think we'd be able to meet. The economy's contracting. There were signs of this months ago, even before this budget was put together, and I think that's unrealistic. We have to learn to live within our means and I don't think people are willing to say things that they know people don't want to hear. With regard to tax reassessment, I don't want to pay any more taxes than anybody else does but the bottom line is that we need to increase revenues. A court order demanded we fix our reassessment system. We also needed to do it because bond agencies wanted us to do it. When we're in such a precarious financial position, we need to do it."

Murray said the county cannot afford to pay any more to borrow money than it already has. "I thought [voting against tax reassessment] was pandering to public opinion rather than saying, 'This is what we have to do. Sorry but this is the way it is.' When all the numbers were said and done, the Republicans and Democrats agreed on a 24 percent tax raise. In packaging it, I agreed with the Democratic proposal in that it's better off getting 15 percent up front to build up reserves rather than have to borrow for every little thing and try to clean up the budget rather than do the 9 percent 5-5-5. I think the 15-3-3-3 would help us out in the long run because we'd be saving money by building up the reserves and we wouldn't have to borrow on a lot of the operating expenses."

Murray said she strongly disagrees with the concept of borrowing on operating expenses. "You don't do it in your own household. You live within your means, and it hurts sometimes, but you need to do it. You don't take a home equity loan out every time you need to pay the mortgage."

She suggested consolidating borrowing as a means to cut expenses. "If we could do that it would help a great deal. Project what you'll need this year, in two years, in five years and borrow accordingly. I think lack of planning and foresight is a big problem in this county."

When asked what specific changes, if any, she'd make in the 8th District, particularly Garden City, Murray raised a growing concern of many - rail traffic. "Months ago, [Governor] Pataki reached an agreement regarding freight on the Hempstead line but I think that deal left people living along the main line out in the cold. It's not only affecting our village either - it affects New Hyde Park, Mineola and Floral Park as well. There are plans to build a third rail on that line and that's also going to affect village residents, especially those on the western side whose backyards face up to that line."

Murray also thinks local officials need to put more pressure on state and federal officials because the 8th District's air traffic problems cause noise pollution. "When they fly at the regulated height it's not so bad but it seems as though most of them ignore the regulations to come down and land on sight rather on using the instruments. The noise pollution is definitely something that directly affects this district."

Murray said she's never run for political office before - not since an unsuccessful bid for Student Council during her years at Garden City High School. She is, however, running next month on the Democratic and Liberal party lines. "I'm running because silence is the voice of complicity. It's time. It didn't take one man to run this county into the ground. It took a lot of people not saying anything and it's time that regular people, who are not career politicians, stand up and say, 'This is it. I'm tired.'"

Garden City South resident Pat Basso Friedman, who hopes to defeat Vincent Muscarella and Tracy Murray in the 8th District race for county legislator, has a dream - a legislative board consisting of nine Republicans, nine Democrats and herself, an Independence Party candidate.

"Then you'd start to see something get done. I'm truly an independent Independence Party candidate. I cannot be controlled simply because I probably have more knowledge than all of them put together from my own 40 years of experience. The same problems we're facing today were those same problems we faced six-and-half years ago," she said.

"For the first two terms, Republicans controlled us and nothing happened. The very last term, which is ending now and is the first term for Democrats, nothing happened. I think what's happening in Nassau County is simply outrageous. There's a lot of duplication and a lot of waste and I've been around long enough and have been active long enough ... It's time for change."

Running on several party lines, including Independence, Democrat, Liberal and Working Families, Friedman said the numerous layers of government that has existed for years is unnecessary. "We don't need county, town and village governments along with a county legislator on top of all that," she said. "Something should be done. Every once in a while you hear someone poking their head up, saying, 'Let's eliminate town government. Let's eliminate county government. Let's eliminate something.'"

She's outraged by the fact that some Nassau County residents live without a library system. "It's hard to believe that we have people in Nassau County without a library system. People in Floral Park have absolutely no library district. I cannot imagine anybody in Nassau County not having a library. Worse yet, I can't imagine that nobody's attempted to do something about it. How can you exist without a library?"

If elected, Friedman said she'd certainly make sure people, like those residents in Floral Park, would have the means of a library by some way or another. "I would see to it that those residents have the availability," she said. "If I pay $300 a year for my library, the closest library should be open to them for the same fee."

With regard to the 1,400 automobiles Nassau County has confiscated and "left to rot" in Cedar Creek, Friedman can't understand why the county auctions these vehicles off at only small percentages of their actual value. "I attended the last auction and these cars were not the cream of the crop. I want to know where the cream of the crop is. I am against a police state of confiscating cars. I am against a police state period. I think we have DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) problems and I believe those who enforce the law should go to the source. Go where these people are coming from before they get on the road and hit them when they put the keys in the car.

"Don't rely on a police state where there's $50,000 automobiles being confiscated along with $500 vehicles. Where is equal justice under the law? I'm strictly against it. There's no rhyme or reason to it. There's no thought pattern."

Friedman said it would make more sense to issue strict fines than to auction off vehicles for considerably less money than what they are actually worth. "The county would be getting more money through the issuing of fines than through auctioning off these cars. Wouldn't it be cleaner and easier to handle?

"Nassau County is the highest taxed municipality in the world and we pay the highest utilities in the world. All they know is to raise taxes. Don't they know anything else? Meanwhile they allow these cars to be auctioned off at 25 percent of their actual value," she said.

Graduating summa cum laude from Adelphi University, Friedman studied social work and prides herself in helping people. She's been president of her civic association and has been involved with the group for the past 40 years. Friedman also volunteers for The Red Cross. "I'm very active. I'm not one to sit still. I'm not one to watch television either, except for the Yankees."

Noting she's not a politician, Friedman said she's never been on the public payroll. "I've only been interested in private concerns and I might be the only senior citizen on the board, if elected."

Friedman, who ran for county legislator six years ago, said this year's election is going to be quite different, especially with the state of affairs Nassau County is currently in. "They want to blame Gulotta when it was Gulotta's budget they passed each year. They didn't have to vote for it each and every year. It's easy to cop out and blame Gulotta. Unfortunately, taxpayers are paying the price for it. People of Nassau County need to wake up to what's going on here."

It has long been a philosophy of the Muscarella family to give back to the communities they have been a part of by serving the public and belonging to various organizations within the communities they live. Nassau County Legislator Vincent Muscarella has continued that tradition.

"We were taught that community service was a necessary part of fulfilling a civic responsibility that we all have," said Muscarella. "I guess from a young age I joined a lot of different civic associations and fraternal organizations and my involvement in politics is really an extension that grew out of the service in those organizations. I've been a part of the organizations long before I was ever an elected official and I think that serves me well."

The West Hempstead resident has been an active member of the Order Sons of Italy in America, a charter member of the West Hempstead Civic Association and West Hempstead Chamber of Commerce, past president and member of the Executive Board of the Franklin Square Lions Club as well as a member of the Franklin Square Knights of Columbus. He has served on a budget advisory committee for the West Hempstead Union Free School District and is a member of the West Hemsptead Parent-Teacher Association. Muscarella also served his community as a New York State Assemblyman in the 22nd Assembly District.

But perhaps his greatest challenge lies ahead as a member of the Nassau County Legislator, representing the 8th Legislative District, a position he has held for the past six years.

He admits that because of the county's fiscal situation and troubles that have dated as far back as a decade ago, the Nassau County Legislature has been forced to change its role from a lawmaking body to one with a major hand in the county's yearly budgets. "Because of the fiscal crisis, we've had to assume that role. It is certainly a challenge and it is difficult at times," Muscarella said.

Besides concentrating on the county's fiscal dilemma, Muscarella has also tried to better the communities of the county through legislation. He sponsored legislation that banned the herbal substance ephedrine as a dietary supplement and drafted up the county's smoking ordinance, which regulated smoking in public places throughout the county.

Recently, Muscarella introduced legislation that requires the county's department of health to license tattoo and piercing parlors. Previously, there have been no such standards for tattoo and piercing procedures. The bill also required parental consent for any minor (under the age of 18) wanting to receive those types of procedures, other than the normal piercing of the ear lobe.

Despite other issues pertinent to Nassau County, the paramount issue in voters' minds as they cast their votes on Nov. 6 is the county's fiscal situation. Muscarella says he understands there has been an erosion of public trust because Nassau has found itself having to be helped by state aid an a state induced financial oversight board.

Muscarella vows to continue to work toward fiscal stability through philosophies he believes are best for the residents of the county. "I'm a fiscal conservative so I look first to cut spending. The county doesn't have a revenue problem. It doesn't have a problem where we raise too little money. It's that we spend too much money," he said. "I look first at what we spend and try to trim that as much as possible so that we don't affect our residents' ability to pay while still preserving the programs that the residents expect and have a right to continue."

The differences in the philosophies of the Republican caucus and Democratic caucus, which holds the 10-9 majority of the legislature, was apparent last year when the legislature attempted to pass a budget. After portions of the Democrats' proposed budget was vetoed by the county executive, the Republican members of the legislature declined to override the vetoes. The posturing figures to continue as long as there are differences of opinion regarding how Nassau's problems should be fixed.

"That's the balance our government is involved in right now - the ability to pay versus the quality of service that people expect and deserve," he said. "You look to provide efficiencies in all of the departments to allow them to continue to provide the services, but at a lesser cost."

Muscarella acknowledges that there are still substantial problems in the county, but does believe steps have already begun to solve those problems. "Over the past couple of years, there has been cooperation among both parties in the legislature to understand the seriousness of the problem and to address it," he said.