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                                                                               Nassau County-owned Gold Coast mansion "Mille Fleurs" from OldLongIsland.com Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, a Democrat running for re-election this Nov., reported more than $2 million in her campaign committee bank account two weeks ago. (see previous Jan. 18 item). The two largest contributors to "Laura Curran for Nassau" in the past six months were the Simon Property Group, which gave $25,000 on Sept. 18, 2020 and Karli Hagedorn, chairwoman of the non-profit Friends of Sands Point Preserve, a county-owned park along North Shore's Gold Coast, who gave $20,000 on Jan. 11, 2020. Since then, some political pundits have pointed out a little more information about both of Curran's largest donors. About a month after the Simon Group contributed $25,000 to Curran's campaign, the Nassau Industrial Development Agency on Oct. 28  voted unanimously to begin negotiations for tax

                                                                                       It seemed a bit clueless when Nassau Democratic County executive Laura Curran on Jan. 28 tweeted an attack on the "Cuomo Watch"-- a twitter account critical of Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo.  Doesn't Curran ever watch the news? The tweet she was complaining about was obviously satirical: It was the very same words U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, had used at a rally in Los Angeles on June 2018 about the Trump administration. Except Cuomo Watch substituted  "the Cuomo administration" for the words "that (Trump) Cabinet." If that wasn't enough to emphasize the satire, the quote was attributed to "Maxine CuomoWatch." But no, Curran, a strong Cuomo supporter, didn't get the joke. "No matter what your political party or beliefs, this is unacceptable," Curran tweeted. She didn't  tweet that response to Waters when the Congress

Although Nassau County Executive Laura Curran promised a "transparent" administration when she ran for election in 2017, transparency has been a continuing problem for her administration. During her first year in office, deputies for Curran's County Attorney Jared Kasschau, a former partner in the Harris Beach law firm, wrote in response to a reporter that Nassau County "as a whole" is not subject to New York's Freedom of Information law. Requests for county records not physically held in Curran's office would be denied, they decreed -- an edict they later withdrew. But a Curran spokesman last year used the same excuse to deny a different request for information. In addition, numerous private citizens had to sue Nassau County over the past two years to find out how their home's value was developed under Curran's 2018 reassessment.  After months of litigation over one reassessment lawsuit -- racking up legal fees that will cost taxpayers at least

                                                                                      Atlantic Beach Bridge (source:Nassau County Bridge Authority) (   While the MTA is considering fare increases or service cuts,  crossing the the Atlantic Beach Bridge will still cost $2 -- the same price drivers have paid since 2008. Vincent Grasso, executive director of the Nassau County Bridge Authority said in an email yesterday:   "I am very pleased to announce that for the 14 th Straight Year, the Atlantic Beach Bridge will NOT be increasing the toll." Grasso said he researched the history of MTA bridges and found every MTA Bridge since 2007, "has increased its toll no less than SEVEN times, with increases over that same time period between 111% and 211%.  The average annual increase was between 7.32% and 11.58%." He included a chart he prepared. (see below) Given the anxiety over the coronavirus and possible MTA fare increases, Grasso wrote "some good news  is certai

                                                                               Gov. Andrew Cuomo When County Executive Laura Curran on Monday called for the general tax payment deadline to be extended from Feb. 10 to March 12, it was pretty certain that Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo was going to do just that.  Democrat Curran has a pretty tight connection with the Cuomo forces. Cuomo yesterday issued an executive order amending various laws, ordinances and rules including: "Nassau County Administrative Code § 5-17.0(1) to the extent necessary to extend the deadline to pay 2021 first half general taxes appearing on the Nassau County tax roll without interest or penalties from February 10, 2021 to March 12, 2021." But Curran wasn't the first to call for the deadline to be extended. Republican politicians weeks earlier asked Cuomo to extend the deadline because the county was late in delivering the assessment roll used to calculate the Jan. 1 county, town and special distr

                                                                                   Republican news conference alleging $13.7 million in assessment errors Whoops. Nassau Republicans today alleged another $13.7 million in property tax overcharges due to errors in Democratic Nassau County Executive Laura Curran's reassessment. At a news conference attended by Hempstead Supervisor Don Clavin, Tax Receiver Jeanine Driscoll and Nassau Legis. John Ferretti and Steve Rhoads --  all Republicans --  Driscoll announced that her office had discovered that the county's Assessment department had incorrectly calculated school tax exemptions for  28,500 veterans, undercharging them by $13.7 million. Driscoll said the assessor's office had used a outdated statistic, called the level of assessment, to calculate the exemptions even though Curran had changed the level when she began her 2018 reassessment. Doing the math, that gave each of those veterans an average $480 tax break on the school

Hempstead Town Councilman Anthony D'Esposito Hempstead Town councilman Anthony D'Esposito today called on County Executive Laura Curran to give the Island Park community "a seat at the table" before agreeing to cut payments by the Long Island Power authority on its E.F. Barrett power plant. D'Esposito, a Republican from the South Shore village, said the county executive has kept Island Park "in the dark" since last January about her proposed deal to settle long standing tax challenges on the power plant  in Island Park and another power station on the North Shore in Glenwood Landing. "I am writing as a Hempstead Town Councilman and an Island Park resident to demand that your administration provide a 'seat at the table' for members of the Island Park School District, the business community and local neighbors before proposing the ratification of any settlement agreement. They don't deserve to be blindsided with an agreement that could hav

                                                                                                                                                     While Nassau legislators on Monday spent hours asking about $5.5 million in assessment errors affecting some 4,700 veterans and clergy in Nassau, County Executive Laura Curran was tweeting and emailing constituents and contributors. Several of her tweets promoted Long Island restaurant week, including the above. But readers did not react well to mocking Sen. Bernie Sanders. Nor to Curran promoting indoor dining while residents are unable to the vaccines against the coronavirus. Almost all the 55 responses to her tweet were negative: This is pretty gauche and not the best meme to support bernie's popularity.  You know there's still a pandemic, right? Love to use a viral Bernie meme to put the lives of servers/restaurant workers in danger during a worldwide pandemic! Do you have a bad take generating machine that just always makes t

                                                                                          Legis. John Ferretti                                                                         Legis. Arnold Drucker      About 4,500 Nassau veterans and 800 clergy were overcharged more than $5 million in general property taxes this month because the county did not apply valid exemptions in its recent assessment roll,  a top assessment official acknowledged today. That comes after Nassau acknowledged last month that it had overcharged homeowners at least $2.7 million in school property taxes because of hundreds of errors in the assessment roll. But this must all be make believe. After all, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, a Democrat running for re-election this year, denied any mistakes when Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin and Tax Receiver Jeanine Driscoll, both Republicans, accused the county assessor in October of making 12,000 errors in this assessment roll, the first to use values de