If you don't have health insurance and get sick, the tax payers have to pay for it anyway- so go get health insurance please- search online "Penny Medical" and learn how you can get insurance at discount price.

"According to Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, since Nassau’s labor unions have not provided the voluntary concessions required by law,"

I wonder where I could read up on these voluntary concessions required by law.

Just wondering will Mr mangano and his staff be making concessions to help the county during these rough times.Also since our social service payrolls are reimbursed by the federal government how do cutting these jobs help us save a nickel. Please Mr Mangano do your homework

Cutting jobs save money because the expense of pension and health insurance contributions lessens which is the reason for escalating costs in the budget. The debt service and Medicaid are the uncontrollable increasing factors.

He means that by law he cannot demand concessions so he is requesting them to be volunteered by the unions which is the only way by law to get concessions.

I do not wish a single union member to lose their job or to lower their pay or lose out on promised raises. However, the majority of us in the private sector have had our pay stagnate or decrease for over a decade as Census and publicly traded companies show. While unionized public sector costs have increased due to pension and insurance needs and contractually and sometimes binding arbitration awarded raises totaling over some years 5 percent raises with no contribution rate.

Union members have claimed since the 1990s they have been giving back. Deferred payments at a later date have been the givebacks over the years. Let me inform unions while it may seem nice to not take raises now and save for later. It is not a concession. You still get the money just later on. We as taxpayers still have to pay form except they go off like time bombs a few years later doubling costs for foregoed raises plus pension and insurance increases.

Medicaid costs can be controlled when our politicians decide its time to stop the fraud

Hey Merrick7, what you forget is that people who take government jobs take them at a lower rate of pay with the trade off of benefits and retirement - now to take that away from people who have traded valuable years of their time, and also threatening them with layoffs - that's just not right -
what I'd like to see? a drilled down analysis of where Nassau County budget money actually goes - as it seems that even with the county 'hurting' for money Mr Mangano found many millions to put into 'astroturfing' some of the parks and having that ridiculous coliseum vote, that just couldnt wait a few months for election day....

Both of you make valid points I quess my frustration comes from the fact the county does'nt care if the state money is wasted and the state does'nt care about the abuse of federal money, clearly we need politician who are willing to bring the corrupting to an end. Cutting jobs and salaries will only hurt and already depessed economy

we have the most overpaid underworked cops in the country. frankly their pay should be cut and half and their numbers reduced. sounds like a patrol officer here makes more then the police commissioner in many major cities. something is wrong

Just like the school budgets, I would love to see a crystal clear breakdown of the nassau county budget.....down to the last penny. Full disclosure, without smoke and mirrors, please......we're all frustrated and disgusted.....yes, the police out here make an unbelievable amount of money - but no one started stomping their feet about it until recently.....when the belt gets tighter, we hit the obvious suspects first....but remember, it all starts from the TOP.

Does anyone know what the County's position is on the "Two Percent Tax Cap Law"?

http://seethroughny.net/

David, thanks for the link...interesting that the Trend report for Nassau County - for expenditures lists the majority of the monies spent either as "miscellaneous" or "unclassified" - this is under the education, government, economic development and employee benefit breakdowns....so much for clearing that up......everyone should have a look.....if I budgeted my books that way I'd be up you-know-what-creek....

In the TOBAY, Venditto has
Borrowing Increase to $142M in 2010
Operations increase of $18M in 2010
Utilities Increase of $16M in 2010
Recreational Services increase of over $27M in 2009

How did Mr. Mangano pay for this????? Increased Fees and Borrowing. We will all probably see a MAX increase in Property taxes at some point to pay for all of this.

THANKS MANGANO

Joseph, thanks for the time you took....seems that there's still a lot of money floating around out there unaccounted for and as for the salaries/benefits/pensions - it is what it is.....you can't change contracts over night. We can blame past administrations for the nice contracts, but only the current/future "politicians" will see that thru.....we can look in many areas to cut back - some may hurt, but hey, that hasn't stopped me with my personal budget.....I can't borrow and I won't borrow. Stop prolonging the misery....or simply put - Long Island will be a ghost town - and not in the too distant future....

Helen,
Here is the rest of the budget. While you are right there is other money floating around, the overwhelming majority of the cost is for salaries and benefits. Cutting the electric bill, or county auto expense is not going to make a dent. If you look closely, though the larger number is salaries, the bigger problem is in Fringe Benefits & Medicaid which are 85% of salaries. This is impossible to sustain. By comparison, corporations generally spend about 30% of salaries on benefits. If something is not changed, soon the county will be paying more for benefits than salaries. Plus, these salaries are not materially less than the private sector as some people claim. In fact, they are at least in line if not higher. When you add on the costs of benefits, on average Nassau county employees compensation packages are significantly higher. For my job, I manage larger budgets than this. And the answers are the same. It is simple math. Grow revenues or cut expenses. Either we cut back the spending , raise taxes (which hurts economic growth) or grow the economy in a hurry (not possible).

AA – SALARIES, WAGES AND FEES 26% 829,291
AB - FRINGE BENEFITS (Pensions & Health Insurance) 14% 455,312
AC - WORKERS COMPENSATION 1% 28,820
BB - EQUIPMENT 0% 1,834
DD - GENERAL EXPENSES 1% 45,232
DE - CONTRACTUAL SERVICES 5% 145,580
DF - UTILITY COSTS 2% 50,191
DG - VAR DIRECT EXPENSES 0% 5,200
FF - INTEREST 3% 83,048
GA - LOCAL GOVT ASST PROGRAM 2% 61,531
GG - PRINCIPAL 3% 94,859
HC - NHC ASSN EXP NASSAU HEALTH CARE ASSN 0% 13,000
HH - INTERFD CHGS INTERFUND CHARGES 2% 52,251
JA - CONTINGENCIES RESERVE 0%
LB - TRANS TO GEN FUND 0%
MM - MASS TRANSPORTATION 1% 47,874
NA - NCIFA EXPENDITURES 0% 1,400
OO - OTHER EXPENSE 9% 276,297
PP - EARLY INTERVENTION/SPECIAL EDUCATION 5% 171,304
SS - RECIPIENT GRANTS 2% 73,050
TT - PURCHASED SERVICES 2% 59,274
WW - EMERGENCY VENDOR PAYMENTS 2% 63,808
XX - MEDICAID 8% 242,762
EXPENSE Total 87% 2,801,918
Interdepartmental Transfers 13% 425,815
Expenses including Interdepartmental Transfers 100% 3,227,733

Joseph, again thanks for all of your hard work on this - perhaps you could help out Nassau County? No kidding. We've made our proverbial bed - well, others have - and aside from either bailing out on LI or selling our houses yesterday - what can we do? The big fat cat days are over - just no one has told the cat....

Helen,
You will find this funny. A while back I had an opportunity to take a position in the budget department for N.C. This is the funny part. I had to withdraw myself from consideration because the job didn’t pay enough to cover my living expenses which are comprised mostly of ....Can you guess? ..Property Taxes. Ironic don’t ya think?

Joseph based on your statement I guess every job the county offers isnt on the same pay level with the private sector or you wouldve taken the job considering the benefits.

I love to read the comments where people are talking about the taxes on LI. Look at your property tax bill!!!!! Educate yourself. I am paying 14,000 in taxes. Only $3,800 is property tax. The rest- $10,200 is school tax. The property tax is not an issue. The school tax is. Last year I had an increase of 25% in school taxes from $7,800 to $10,200. I do not care if there would be an increase in my property tax bill by 2%-10% to pay for cops salaries. It will be only $76-$380 increase on my property tax bill. I care about my school tax will be increased again. It will have much bigger impact on my wallet. But, for some reason no one talks about it.

@Joseph - now that is funny - now whether it's the town/county or even school - EVERY BUDGET should be transparent - you could, dare I say, write the (fill in the blank) Budget for Dummies - LOL. I'm not calling anyone dumb - so let me nip that in the bud - but you all know what I mean - we're not all experts, nor do we have the time to decipher the matrix. ----- as for school taxes - well, that's upsetting my tummy along with my wallet. Explain to anyone not from NY our tax "issues" and they look at you like your the dummy for living here.....if I knew then what I'm living now.....

Long Island's governments, school districts and public agencies will be billed more than $3 billion to finance the pensions of public workers in the next two years, according to a Newsday analysis.

Location or entity
Retirement system
Contribution 2010
Contribution 2011
Projected contribution 2012
Projected contribution 2013
% change 2010 to 2013

Syosset schools Employees $1,274,246.00 $1,992,092.00 $2,879,833.00 $3,244,947.00 154.7%
Syosset Fire District Employees $48,757.00 $123,309.00 $166,139.00 $177,032.00 263.1%
Syosset Public Library Employees $174,261.00 $280,566.00 $398,858.00 $450,701.00 158.6%
Syosset schools Teachers $5,465,723.99 $7,947,995.76 $10,252,914.53 $11,073,147.69 102.6%

This is where your taxes go.

Joseph: The Supt is a HE (William Johnson) and he makes $262k according to the website and I know it's more. With a slew of perks his package adds up to 3330k plus or minus. And the fact is if you don't start somewhere, you will have begun nowhere. First you clip his wings and so on down the line. When I have spoken to Dr Johnson about his salary he has told me that we have him to thank for the great scores etc among our the students. really. How about the teachers? Did they do nothing. And how about the parents? The ones in this district who read to their kids every night when they are young. Who create reading readiness long before the children are of school age? I would like to see him get the same scores were he to transfer to Hempstead. It would not happen and none of it has to do with him and his 250+ salary. I went into education many years ago and got BA and MS and taught for a few years but then found another industry to be much more rewarding financially and otherwise. Unless Dr. Johnson wants to be in show biz, I suggest he take less money... and I for one don't want to pay a show biz salary to a pedagogue. And so we must start somewhere and we start with him. Refuse to sign his next contract!.

Ted there is no way you found a position more rewarding financially than teachers. I didnt think it was possible :). That is my niggest surprise with your post everything else is 100% correct.

Joseph, you of course correct. We have to get on the Board and then we can make change. I personally cannot run for office of any kind and keep my p/t job. But I would If I could.

The problem with fighting the school taxes comes down to this, there is not a single representative that will take them on. When it was discovered that they were paying lawyers multiple times for the same or no services, I inquired to Suozzi how come this wasn't noticed sooner, he pushed me off to the Sup Int who then told me that they audit every year. Big problem here, when the schools audit themselves. They should be audited by the state or some other independent audit group not affiliated with the district. Only then do we have a chance to get a handle on school pocket spending.

Our school taxes in the Five Towns are crazy. This has brought n a reduction in our property values. The first question people ask when they want to see a house here is "What are the taxes?"

I think the root of the problem is the assessment system on which our property taxes are based. That is what we need to get our representatives to fight to fix.

I am writing a series of articles on this on my blog (fivetownsrealestateblog.com). I plan on fighting my assessment myself this year and will write about how to do that as well.

We need a grass roots organization to get our reps to look into fixing the system.