(Editor's Note: The Induction of the Fourth Nassau County Legislature was held on Jan. 3, at Nassau Community College. The installation of Legislator Richard Nicolello (R-9th District), who represents Carle Place, is featured this week. Next week, the installation of Legislator Roger Corbin (D-2nd District) , who represents Westbury, will be featured.)

Now that the excitement of the November elections has subsided and new Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi has begun to settle in to his new role, the responsibility of fixing the county's fiscal dilemma has fallen on the shoulders of Suozzi and 19 county legislators. One of those legislators is Republican Rich Nicolello, who represents the 9th legislative district. Nicolello is ready for the challenge. His goal is to help the county avert a takeover by the Nassau Interim Finance Authority (NIFA), a state appointed board that oversees the county's finances. It is a simple goal, but to accomplish it will not be so simple.

"It's exciting and different because of the new county executive. The whole West Street building is in motion basically. But there's a dark side to it because a lot of people got fired," Nicolello said the day after he was sworn in for another two-year term.

Although the nine Republican legislators find themselves in the minority position since the Democrats hold a 10-9 majority in the legislature as well as the county executive position, Nicolello is optimistic that they will be able to work together with Suozzi. "He's energetic and he has ideas about what to do," Nicolello said.

The county's elected officials will bear the burden for at least the next two years of solving the county's fiscal problems. It's something that looms over everyone. "There's a lot of difficult decisions and hard work ahead. All of us should realize that. Pretty soon the shine of this newness will wear off and we'll be in the middle of trying to resolve the crisis again," Nicolello said.

One of the first goals of the new regime is having a four-year, financial plan due to NIFA on April 1. Taxpayers are, of course, concerned about tax hikes that may be necessary to get the county back on firm financial footing. The last two years, the Democratic majority proposed 15 percent tax increases. The propositions, both years, were vetoed by then County Executive Thomas Gulotta. Ultimately, tax increases of about 8 percent and 9 percent were passed. However, with a Democratic majority in the legislature and a Democratic county executive, Republicans now may not have a say in future tax increases. "As we go forward, they will be able to pass whatever tax increase they want and the county executive may go along with it," Nicolello said, but warned that even a 15 percent tax increase wouldn't solve the county's financial problems. "Each year, we have built-in escalating costs so we could pass a 15 percent tax increase and then next year, be faced with a multimillion dollar deficit and we will be faced with it because of increasing costs and primarily that's our labor contracts."

Nicolello said the current regime has to work on bringing in more efficient managers for the administration. "We're going to need people that are energetic and are looking for ways to save monies, to apply for grants and do things differently," he said.

Nicollelo also said he is concerned with how reassessment is going to affect some of the residents who may find their homes reassessed at a great value and therefore be forced to pay more taxes, although the process should cut down on the millions of dollars the county shells out for tax refunds. "We could be saving money if any sort of administration was used to process these claims quickly. We pay interest on the refunds because it takes us years to resolve the claims. If there's a judgment, each year we pay 9 percent interest and when it stretches over the course of years, the refunds that we give include the school's and the town's portion. If we could administer these claims in a quicker fashion, we would bring down the costs dramatically," he said.

Another issue of concern is the county's negotiations with labor unions. Currently, the county is either in negotiation or arbitration with the police union. Nicolello believes the real challenge for Suozzi is to take on the labor unions so that unions will be willing to make some concessions so that new contracts are not fiscally damaging to the county. "It's a tremendous problem. It's a difficult issue to present to a new county executive, but that's a major part of the equation in getting us out of the cycle of budget deficits. He would have to use up political capital to do it and take on some pretty powerful unions, but if he's able to do it, he could go a long way toward putting the county straight again," Nicolello said.

With many challenges ahead, County Executive Suozzi and members of the legislature , including Nicolello , have a chance to sink or swim. However, it appears that elected officials are not shying away from the responsibility, considering that all 19 members of the legislature were re-elected this past November. "Even as Republicans, we have a vested interest in seeing this thing work out. The worst scenario is having a control board take over because it's a major embarrassment. Regardless of who is in power now, people are going to blame the Republicans in part. We want to do everything we can to avoid that and secondly, we want to be associated with the group that turned the county around," Nicolello said.