Who's Telling The Truth About Real Estate Taxes?

In a few days, Nassau County voters will go to the polls to elect the individual who will be their County Executive for the next four years. There choice is between one man who has served in that position these last 4 years, and another that he defeated who previously held that position. There has been much debate, and lots of confusing statements made about who left what in terms of deficits, taxes, etc. Politics being politics, there is always real facts and political facts (also often known as mumble jumble).

Mr. Mangano has spent this campaign emphasizing his "Thank you Ed Mangano for not raising taxes" campaign. While it is true that there have been no new or additional Nassau county real estate taxes during these past four years, many homeowners have seen significant tax increases, especially these last two years. One of the primary reasons for this is that little has been done to improve the way the County's Assessments are performed and handled, and so, local taxes and school taxes, that are calculated using these assessments, have been significantly increased, etc. Mr. Mangano has also semi-privatized the system referred to as the NICE bus system (but service, routes, etc., have not seen any improvements, although there does appear to be some lessening in the bleeding from the transportation program). The elaborate plan to somewhat privatize the parks has raised some revenues, but has not focused on future issues that might be impacted. The much discussed reorganization of the Police Department has appeared to be much ado about nothing, and much time and resources were allotted that probably would have been better served elsewhere. The County is still under the control of the Nassau County Control Board, and the overall finances do not appear to have significantly improved, and we appear to be even more in debt.
Mr. Suozzi claims to have reduced the debt he inherited during his 8 years in the office, but also left the County significantly in debt. He did increase taxes, and imposed temporary utility taxes that lasted until Mangano eliminated them. However, if nothing from the revenue side had been done by Mr. Suozzi, the Control Board would not have approved a deficit budget.
The lesson to be learned from this is that politicians rarely tell us the whole story, but simply gloss over the unpopular and emphasize the popular. We must remember that the taxpayer ends up paying for government, so somehow there seem to always be new taxes or fees, etc. Until we insist that the system be changed and that government is truly made more efficient, we, the taxpayers, will continue to suffer, and pay!