Nassau Democrats abstain on Budget: abdication or an October surprise?

                                                                                      

Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams (D-Freeport)

After Democratic Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams railed against Republican  changes to County Executive Laura Curran's  2022 budget as "fiscally irresponsible and reckless" on Monday, all eight legislative Democrats abstained from voting on the amended budget.

Huh?

If Democratic legislators were so outraged by Republican-approved fee cuts and property tax trims,  why didn't they vote no on the budget, instead of abdicating their elected responsibility to oversee county spending by refusing to vote. 

That's what an abstention is. It's a non-vote; It's taking no position.

According to Roberts Rules of Order, abstentions are instances in which members who are present refuse to vote.

Democrats abstained even though Abrahams had just proclaimed, "There comes a point where you have to roll up your sleeves and do what's fiscally responsible.."

"I do have a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers," he added.

Didn't he just abdicate his fiduciary responsibility by abstaining on the amended budget? 

Abrahams also repeatedly said that legislators should wait for the county's financial control board to weigh in.. He predicted that the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, which took control of county finances in 2011, would not look favorably on the amended budget when it meets on Thursday as compared to the budget proposed by Curran, a Democrat is running for re-election in two weeks.

"We believe the county executive presented a fiscally responsible, thoughtful, balanced budget," he said.

Abrahams seemed to all but say that NIFA was poised to end the control period if it received Curran's original budget.

And what an October surprise that would be. 

A rumor has floated since Curran took office in 2018 that NIFA, which had been controlled by former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo-- a Curran ally until his resignation in August -- would end the control period before Curran's re-election.

First to explain: NIFA established a control period in 2011 under former Republican County Executive Ed Mangano, citing a large budget deficit. That means NIFA, created in 2000, evolved from overseeing county finances to controlling them through contract approvals or forced spending changes. Not that NIFA ever really took any forceful action, but it threatened all the time.

If NIFA drops its control period, it would revert to an oversight board until the last of its borrowing on Nassau's behalf is repaid. That means NIFA essentially lives forever.

Sources say NIFA will not end the control period this year. Full stop. End of story.

But listen to what Abrahams said at Monday's meeting, and then repeated in different ways:

"We are going to see what NIFA says in the coming days," Abrahams said. "We are all eager to remove a control board, to have a control board removed from the county...The budget presented by the county executive does this. From that standpoint, we want to be able to allow that to move forward."

He added that Curran's proposed budget "allows us to get the cloud of NIFA from over our head. And moves us in a direction of removing NIFA...."

Republicans who have accused NIFA of political bias, were skeptical.

"Whether or not NIFA remains in a control period, probably depends on whether the county executive is Republican or Democrat," said Presiding Officer Rich Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park.)