Includes No Special State Aid for First Time
Declares Fiscal Crisis Over
Says There Is More to Do To Keep Taxes Down,
Get Fair Share from Albany, and
Make Nassau Livable For Future Generations
Vows the 'Miracle in Mineola' Will Continue

The front page of Newsday the day after my inauguration read "Taking Charge: Suozzi Vows to Get County Out of Debt." From the beginning, the primary mission of my administration was to rescue this county from bankruptcy.

Ninety days later, on April 1, 2002, with the understanding that the financial mess we inherited was much bigger than anyone had imagined, I stood before the people of a beleaguered Nassau County and once again promised that I would solve the fiscal crisis that brought our once great government to the rim of ruin.

The government that I inherited was the most broken and battered and beaten in the nation. In fact, according to the prestigious Maxwell School of Public Affairs at Syracuse University, Nassau County was rated the "worst" run county in America.

Everywhere we looked there was dysfunction. Our buildings were crumbling, our parks were neglected, our employees disheartened, our coffers, empty.

The cupboard was bare.

Decades of one party machine-politics had pushed Nassau County to the brink of bankruptcy. Only the intervention of New York State government and the creation of an outside monitor, the Nassau Interim Finance Authority prevented it.

NIFA, as it was called, met for the very first time, right here in this room, more than 5 years ago. It is fitting now, that we meet here again, in a symbolic way to say thank you to NIFA.

NIFA started as a strict fiscal monitor, a harsh disciplinarian that demanded that an unresponsive and irresponsible previous administration, take action to prevent collapse.

When my administration presented and implemented credible plans and began to emerge from despair - NIFA morphed into a partner. Instead of warnings and threats of takeover, the members offered helpful suggestions and guidance on how to make our solid work product even stronger.

Today, we move forward, and say thank you.

While NIFA will continue its legislative purpose, today is graduation day. Today, we go out "on our own." For the first time in 5 years, in the 2006 budget, Nassau will not be receiving any financial help from NIFA.

We are here today to say quite simply, THE FISCAL CRISIS IS OVER.

Together with NIFA and with the help of the Democratic majority in the County Legislature, we overcame almost impossible odds to fix what was broken. Thank you to Presiding Officer Judy Jacobs and the rest of our Democrats on the Legislature…It wasn't easy, but we have accomplished our charge.

The Republican machine and their County Legislators fought us on every front. They refused to be a partner in our efforts to save this County… But, we did not falter, we did not fall prey to their opposition.

We cut the workforce to the smallest it has been in 30 years.

Our innovative, smart-government initiatives saved more than $100 million dollars.

We restructured, reduced, retired and refinanced Nassau's outrageous multi-billion dollar debt.

We managed better, consolidated operations, streamlined procedures and introduced new technologies.

We stabilized the financially troubled Nassau Health Care Corporation whose Medical Center had been bleeding red, losing millions of dollars a year and threatened to knock the County off balance once again. It's finally back on its feet.

We went up to the State Legislature to help "Fix-Albany" and we returned with landmark Medicaid Mandate Relief. This change, that many thought would never happen, will save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and is a key to our future stability.

Our recovery has been hailed as "one of the three most dramatic financial turnarounds in the nation" and is now "The Miracle in Mineola."

For the first time in 12 years, Nassau County's finances are straight "A's"

The country's top ratings agencies, Standard & Poors, Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings have all recently upped Nassau's financial ratings into the "A" ranks.

When I took office, the county's bonds were the verge of being deemed junk bonds.

Since that day, we have received ten bond ratings increases. We have never looked back.

And, we look forward today as I submit my 2006 year budget, a few days early as a matter of fact…A long way from the old days in Nassau where budgets were sent over in the darkness of night, unbalanced, unchecked, unworkable.

3 ½ years ago, I said that if the taxpayers of Nassau County would help us by agreeing to a single tax increase for the county portion of their bill, my first year in office…I promised them that I would work as hard as I could to pay them back by delivering no-tax increase County budgets for the remaining three years of my term.

I SAID WE COULD DO IT, AND NOW WE HAVE DONE IT!

Today I present my third consecutive no tax increase budget.

For the third year in a row, 2003, 2004, and now 2005, I am presenting to the Legislature, an honest, balanced, fair budget that does NOT increase the County portion of Nassau's property tax bill.

And, what I am most proud of is the fact that in spite of the dire predictions of our own four-year plans, issued last year, where we discussed the possibility of a 2006 year budget with increased taxes and a new energy sales tax, in fact, THERE WILL BE NO INCREASED TAXES AND CERTAINLY, THERE WILL BE NO ENERGY SALES TAX.

While our four year plan may reflect the possibility of tax increases in the future that mirror the Consumer Price Index, we will work as hard as we have over the past three budgets to not increase taxes.

Let me outline for you, additional elements of our new 2006 balanced budget:

In addition to no tax increase, and no NIFA aid, the County will be paying $50 million in tax refunds back to taxpayers while only borrowing a portion of the funds. The practice of borrowing money to return the overpayment of taxes to School Districts and others, was a major contributing factor to the County's demise. This budget begins the movement away from that destructive practice once and for all.

This budget is balanced, structurally sound and has no tax increase because, in part, the county has accumulated surplus balances that are being used to offset future expenses, like paying for property tax refunds. Furthermore, the County will continue to maintain healthy "rainy day" and tax stabilization funds to offset possible economic downturns related to Hurricane Katrina or other future unforeseen events.

While we have kept our promise to be fiscally conservative, we are not a county without compassion. Last week, when the federal government asked us to take in 150 victims from Hurricane Katrina, we were among the first in the nation to say 'Yes.' And we stand ready, willing and able to assist victims of this devastating and heart wrenching national tragedy.

And this budget also reflects several of my initiatives 1) $1 million to help villages, Chambers of Commerce and other groups to work with the County to develop "visions" for downtown redevelopment and other plans consistent with "New Suburbia" 2) $1 million for my "Common Sense for the Common Good Agenda" to fund efforts to help prevent unintended pregnancies and to support women who face unintended pregnancies 3) $1.5 million to entice Community Based Not-for Profits to join our "No Wrong Door" initiative to deliver better, more cost-efficient Social Services that offer a hand up to those striving to get back on their feet, a program which we believe will be recognized as a national model 4) Other initiatives to improve business retention, to continue our "Parks Making a Comeback Campaign", and enhance County Service and reduce overtime.

Last year we increased our budget to provide for up to 2,650 police officers, over 200 more officers than our original multi-year plan. We have in fact, hired the maximum numbers of police officers we could handle in our police academy since the PBA contract was finalized. This administration has hired twice as many police officers in the past two years (337), than the previous administration had hired in the previous 4 years (166).

Over 140 officers will be graduating within the next 45 days and our 2006 budget will allow us to again hire the maximum number of officers as the police Academy and Civil Service can accommodate. This administration is committed to public safety and has achieved the lowest crime rate in over 30 years and will continue our efforts to do so.

Yes, we have accomplished great things. We have done what we set out to do. We have kept our promises. No longer is Nassau a model of dysfunction. Instead others now look to us as a model of innovation.

But we have more work to do.

We will keep fighting to FixAlbany to reduce the number of unfunded mandates that burden our residents with unreasonably high taxes. And we will fight for our fair share from Albany, where Long Islanders currently send $3 billion more than we get back in state aid.

We will continue to fight against mismanagement and waste in our own government and at all levels of government.

We will work to consolidate local services and streamline the current overlapping web of 400 government entities in our county.

And we will find ways to expand our property tax base and entice economic development to the county while preserving our suburban quality of life.

Just as we kept our promise to right the ship of county government while keeping taxes down, we will keep the promises made today to make Nassau a more prosperous, safer and livable suburb that is fiscally sound and affordable for future generations to come. Because the Miracle in Mineola has only just begun.