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Long Island Democrats have yet to accept the fact that the federal government awarded millions of dollars more in coronavirus assistance to Republican Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin than Democratic Nassau County Executive Laura Curran. Ever since it was announced in April that Hempstead Town was getting $133 million for its 770,000 residents while Nassau would receive $103 million for its 582,000 people living outside of the town, Democrats have asked, cajoled, threatened and demanded that Clavin "share" the money with Curran. First, Nassau's Democratic state senators "suggested" in a letter to Clavin that he turn over the money to villages in their districts, allocated with their help, of course. Then  U.S.  Reps. Tom Suozzi of Glen Cove and Kathleen Rice of Garden City, both Democrats,  personally called Clavin and forcefully demanded he give the federal dollars to Curran. Next, Long Island's Democratic Assembly members sent a letter t...

                                                                            A state Supreme Court justice has ordered Nassau to explain by Sept. 18 why he should not temporarily stop County Executive Laura Curran from collecting property taxes under a planned five-year phase-in of residential reassessments. That's cutting it pretty close: School tax bills in Nassau -- the first property tax bills using new values developed during the 2018 countywide reassessment-- are payable Oct.1. (Correction. Payable date has been moved to Nov. 1 by governor's order. See below) Justice James McCormack issued the show-cause order in response to a Massapequa homeowner's lawsuit contending the phase-in is "arbitrary, irrational, capricious and intentional discriminatory" and results in unequal tre...

                                                                        New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued what almost sounded like a threat against Long Island's Congressional representatives at the end of his coronavirus briefing Monday. After complaining that the federal government has yet to provide funding to the state, city or MTA to offset the steep costs of the pandemic, Cuomo said: "Let those Congressional people produce no federal funds and then come home to New York and then run for re-election in November. Lets see what happens. "   Cuomo added, "Don’t provide subsidy to the MTA, let the LIRR service reduce or t...

Nassau Republicans and Democrats have been hoping for years to rid themselves of the 20-year-old state oversight board that took control of Nassau's finances in 2011 after monitoring the county's books for the prior 11 years. NIFA was created in 2000 by the state legislature at a time when the county was facing a severe budget deficit while owing millions of dollars in property tax refunds. After 20 years of NIFA oversight, the county finds itself facing a severe budget deficit while owing millions of dollars in property tax refunds. And that's after NIFA helped itself to tens of millions of county sales tax dollars to finance itself. Former County Executive Thomas Suozzi tried to get rid of NIFA. Current County Executive Laura Curran campaigned on ending NIFA. That's the major reason why county lawmakers have balked at the idea of having NIFA refinance Nassaus' debt along with debt NIFA issued on the county's behalf. Refinancing debt for another 30 year...

Oyster Bay's longtime Chief Deputy Town Attorney Frank Scalera was appointed town attorney this week by the Republican-controlled town board. Scalera, who was paid $150,000 a year as chief deputy, will earn $165,000 in the town's top legal job, according to town spokesman Brian Nevin. The Republican leader of East Norwich, Scalera has been with the town for 17 years. Scalera fills the position vacated at the end of December by former Town Attorney Joseph Nocella, who left  to become chief of staff for the newly elected Republican Hempstead Town supervisor Don Clavin. Former Nassau County Attorney John Ciampoli, a longtime Republican elections lawyer, said he gave Scalera his first legal job in the late 1980s when Ciampoli had a Garden City law firm, before Scalera left to become a deputy county attorney. "I think it's fair to say Frank Scalera is a very experienced, very bright and very capable municipal lawyer and quite deserving of this appointment, "...

It was all a fake-out. Taxpayers footed the bill for  two lengthy federal trials centered on $20 million in alleged loan guarantees made by Oyster Bay Town to former concessionaire Harendra Singh. Former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano was found guilty of accepting favors from Singh to help him secure the loan guarantees. Mangano and his wife, Linda, who was convicted on related charges, are appealing their convictions. The late Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto was nearly bankrupted fighting corruption charges centered on the loan guarantees. He was acquitted of wrongdoing. Now it turns out there were no loan guarantees. No legal loan guarantees. No enforceable loan guarantees. A state appellate court today threw out the last of three lawsuits brought by lenders trying to get Oyster Bay to make good on $20 million in bad loans they made to Singh over the years. A four-judge panel of the state Appellate Division Second Judicial Department unanimously decid...

While a new law requiring judges to give a reason for recusing themselves awaits Gov. Andrew Cuomo's signature, three Nassau judges have recused themselves without explanation from hearing a lawsuit filed by Oyster Bay Town to stop a proposed homeless shelter in Jericho. Nassau Supreme Court Justices Jack Libert, Helen Voutsinas and John Galasso in the past week have signed orders recusing themselves from Oyster Bay's lawsuit against the new owner of the Hampton Inn on Jericho Turnpike. The town won a temporary restraining order from Justice Arthur Diamond earlier this month to prevent the new owner, 120 Westend LLC,  from moving as many as 80 homeless families into the former Inn in Jericho. The town alleges that 120 Westend has not received the necessary building permits and zoning to convert the three-story building into a six to eight month temporary residence for homeless families. The Hampton Inn is  located in the Jericho School District, which is frequently na...

Love him or hate him, at least New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo admits that violent crime is rising in New York and needs to be stopped. Cuomo yesterday said he would be sending a letters to 500 policing jurisdictions in the state to emphasize the urgency of re-imagining their police departments, to make law enforcement work for both the community and the officers. He put the statistics up on a screen to show the startling crime increase in various communities. Too bad he didn't include Long Island. "You cannot dismiss these numbers," Cuomo said. "You cannot look at reality and say it doesn't exist.  Because the reality is clear." He added that New York City statistics show that 90 percent of the victims are black or brown. His letter, he said, "explains it is imperative to address this urgent crisis. People are dying....This is complicated. This is hard. It's also a matter of life and death."   Other politicians across the nat...