Democrats ask Blakeman to continue $375 cash payment program

                                                                            

Blakeman campaign commercial

During his successful campaign for county executive, Republican Bruce Blakeman made no secret of his disdain for Democratic incumbent Laura Curran's plan to distribute $375 in federal cares act money to homeowners and renters impacted by the pandemic.

"Peanuts!" Blakeman declared in a campaign commercial. "Curran wants to fool you by giving back peanuts." 

He also called it a political stunt and promised he would reduce taxes rather than hand out peanuts.

So it should come as no surprise that Blakeman sent a letter to legislators last Friday saying he was ending the $375 Household Assistance Program after only 70,000 of some 400,000 eligible households applied for the money.

"I have made the determination to end the HAP program effective May 15th. All applications submitted by May 15th will be processed. No new applications will be considered after May 15th," Blakeman wrote in the letter. 

"This determination has been made due to the extremely low participation in the program, which appears to be trickling out. The Comptroller and I along with our budget and finance staff are considering a wide range of services and programs to fund from proceeds leftover from HAP."

Nassau's Democratic lawmakers yesterday responded by asking Blakeman to extend the deadline for applying through the end of this year.

Kevan Abrahams

They blamed Blakeman for failing to promote the program or to advise eligible houseolds that the income threshold was reduced on April 1 to just over $76,000 annually.

Under Curran, households earning up to $168,000 a year could apply for the payments with no questions asked. Households earning up to $500,000 could apply but would have to present evidence of income loss because of the pandemic.

"By potentially depriving thousands of previously eligible families of the opportunity to apply for and receive relief, it is our opinion that your administration is doing a disservice to Nassau’s working- and middle-class families," said the letter signed by all seven Democratic legislators.

"For residents who are still struggling to make ends meet, $375 is not “peanuts” - it is a lifeline. It is time to change your administration’s cavalier attitude toward the financial challenges that are being faced by Nassau County’s working- and middle-class families."

Instead of "peanuts," Blakeman said he would return $120 million to taxpayers after outside auditors found the county ended 2020 with a surplus of about $128 million. Curran included a $70 million property tax cut in this year's budget.

Since Blakeman took office he has ended a long-running dispute over longevity payments with the county's five major unions for a cost of about $100 million in budget surplus funds. 

He also still has three major unions that have worked without a contract since the end of 2017 so hammering out any new deals with them for wage increases and retroactive payments will likely eat up more of the county budget surplus, estimated at more than a half billion dollars unaudited by the end of last year.

So far no word on tax cuts.