Tax policy Mangano promised that if elected, he would repeal a $38 million home energy tax on homeowners passed by former County Executive
Tom Suozzi, which cost households on average $7.27 a month. He eliminated a 13% property tax hike proposed by Suozzi. Due to the lost revenue from the tax cut, the Nassau County Interim Financial Authority (NIFA) found that the county's $2.6 billion budget was out of balance by $176 million. This led
Moody's Investors Service to downgrade the county and put its finances on outlook negative. NIFA did not consider Mangano to have a satisfactory plan to make up for the lost revenue, and seized control of the county's finances. This outcome was called "a cautionary tale" and "a black eye for the Tea Party" by
Reuters, although it was noted that much of the county's financial problems had been inherited from a previous financial crisis in 1999 under the administration of then-County Executive
Thomas Gulotta which had led to the original creation of NIFA. In his proposed 2011 budget, Mangano proposed the removal of the county guarantee, a policy that saw Nassau County repaying taxes that were wrongfully collected and distributed to school taxes. Under the new policy school districts in Nassau, like the rest of the country, would be responsible for returning funds collected in error. This was met with heated opposition by the school districts, who objected that they would immediately be forced to begin setting money aside to pay the property tax refunds starting in 2013. The budget was approved by the
Nassau County Legislature on October 30, 2010, with all 8 Democrats voting against and all 11 Republicans voting in favor. Mangano has implemented several tax initiatives including "$35.6 million in revenue" garnered "from increased real estate fees that" have added "hundreds or thousands of dollars to the cost of buying, selling or refinancing properties in the county." A
CBS news story about the proposed inclusion of a $105 surcharge for every issuance of a traffic or parking ticket in Nassau County quoted several county residents deriding potential fallout from such fees; in the same story, Mangano said "the fee would help pay for the police force to work overtime in policing public events, and would alleviate homeowners from potential tax increases". On October 5, 2016, Nassau County legislature Democrats opposed Mangano's tax plan, claiming it was a 9.4% tax increase.
Assessment system The property assessment system in Nassau County had been blamed for costing taxpayers $250 million each year, including $100 million in refunds and $150 million in interest on debt incurred to pay tax settlements in previous years. In all, this accounts for $1.13 billion of the county's $2.45 billion in outstanding debt. Mangano in March 2010 said he would make reforming the assessment system a priority in his administration, and instructed county lawyers to insist on a 3% rather than 4% interest rate for commercial tax
certiorari settlements, saving the county $1 million annually, and created an Assessment Reform Team to study the property tax assessment system and make recommendations for fixing it. He also moved the county to a four-year assessment cycle so that the assessed property values would be more stable. In late October 2010, errors were found in the first school tax-roll released by the Mangano administration, including incorrect tax-exempt statuses for various properties, such Nassau's own Executive Building, which was included on the roll at $56 million despite being tax-exempt, which contributed to assessing the county itself with an erroneous $1.3 million school tax bill. Following these errors, Mangano fired Assessor Ted Jankowski, who had been originally appointed by Thomas Suozzi and had been criticized by Republicans, and who was considered to be at fault for the errors not being caught. To fix the assessment system further, former Smithtown Assessor
Gregory Hild was appointed to review the system.
Property tax During
Andrew Cuomo's Governor campaign, Mangano supported Cuomo's 2% Tax Cap plan which forces all property tax increases to be capped at the lower of 2% or the rate of inflation, and appeared at many Long Island rallies with him. In June 2011, after passing the State Legislature, Cuomo signed the Tax Cap plan in
Lynbrook, along with Mangano and other County politicians.
Lawsuit against MTA In July 2010, Mangano announced that Nassau County had filed a lawsuit against the State of New York and the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) challenging the legality of the 0.34%
Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Mobility Tax, a
payroll tax levied on employers in the 12-county area served by the MTA. Mangano said that the lawsuit was a reaction to the MTA's plans to significantly reducing funding to the
Long Island Bus and asserted that it "costs Nassau government about $3 million a year and county business owners another $100 million." The lawsuit challenged the legality and constitutionality of the MTA Employer Payroll Tax and argued that it violated the New York State Constitution. including
Orange,
Rockland,
Westchester, and
Suffolk counties. Although the counties' suit was initially successful in the trial court, the counties lost on appeal. Mangano has reduced the public payroll, including highly paid managers, by $22 million in 2010. He also launched an effort to sell surplus property such as vehicles and equipment in an effort to reduce maintenance costs. In 2011, Mangano faced a $310 million Nassau County deficit. In September 2011, Mangano released a proposed 2012 budget with a total cut of $62 million and planned layoffs of 1,010 out of 8,000 total employees (including those 300 already made prior to September 2011), with 5-15% cuts in every department, including the consolidation of police precincts (described below) and the closing of several museums. The budget would also require all employees to contribute 25% toward their health insurances. This budget was criticized by some legislators and police union representatives. This budget was approved in October 2011, by a
party-line vote of 11 Republicans in favor and 8 Democrats opposed. In September 2011, Mangano proposed selling the Nassau County sewer system to a private operator in a private-public partnership for $1.3 billion. The county has hired
Morgan Stanley as an advisor concerning this sale. Nassau's current Sewer and Storm Water Finance Authority has $162 million of its own debt, and is responsible for $305 million of sewer debt issued by the county before 2004. In January 2012, Mangano and other Nassau County officials announced a plan to consolidate Nassau County's eight police precincts into 4 precincts and to eliminate 108 mostly administrative jobs (95 officers and 13 civilian positions), which they claim could save $20 million a year. Mangano and county officials said that the number of police cars will remain the same at 177, but prisoners would be processed exclusively at the four remaining precincts, which are called community policing centers under the plan. The Nassau Police Benevolent Association and four other Nassau police unions were sharply critical of this plan and of earlier concessions that Mangano had called for, but a
Newsday editorial supported it.
Economic development In March 2010, Mangano reached an agreement with Democrats to amend the county's $166 million Capital Improvement Plan to align it with his priorities for the county. Due to the collapse of
Charles Wang and
Scott Rechler's
Lighthouse project, County Executive Mangano partnered with Wang in early 2012 to rebuild the
Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, as well as add an
Atlantic League Minor League ballpark and an indoor track and convention facility. Mangano cited the redevelopment as a major economic and business development boost for Nassau County, as well as a job generator. The proposition had support from numerous Long Island institutions, including The
Long Island Association, Nassau Chambers of Commerce, the Nassau County
Independence Party, and the
National Hockey League. Nassau County held a special election in August 2011 to ask people to vote on whether they would agree to increased taxes amounting to $13.80 per household to pay for a bond to redevelop the area. The
New York Daily News criticized this bond as a public subsidy for a risky private venture based on very optimistic projected attendance rates. Nassau voters rejected the proposed Coliseum redevelopment. After the special election, Mangano announced Request for Proposals (RFPs) for private companies to redevelop the 77 acres of Coliseum site. The request stated that all proposals must address job creation, quality of life and revenue. In October 2011, the County submitted a plan to the Empire State Development Corp. detailing the creation of a new Nassau Coliseum as well as a bio-research facility at the Coliseum site. The county is looking for state funding for the plan, as well as for the development of a casino and soccer stadium at
Belmont Park and an expansion of film studios and homeland security facilities at the
Grumman property in
Bethpage. The plan also mentions a minor league ballpark and track facility in
Mitchel Field. Mangano put together the annual Cruise To The Show car show and parade in 2011, featuring concerts, fundraisers, and a parade of classic cars, as well as awards. Mangano, who is a classic car enthusiast, was joined by Governor
Andrew Cuomo, and his vintage
corvette at the 2011 show. The governor and Mangano want to make Cruise To The Show a huge East Coast car event in
Eisenhower Park, and Mangano stated his belief that it would increase tourism. Nassau County Legislator Kevan Abrahams criticized the show as a frivolous expense during a time of County budget cuts, claiming it would cost $75,000 in police overtime and noting that it was funded by a hotel/museum tax, which Abrahams said would have been better spent on museums.
Issues with Long Island Bus The operation of
MTA Long Island Bus, the public bus transportation system for Nassau County, was subject to a funding dispute between its operator, the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), and the county. For the past decade, the MTA had provided a unique subsidy to the Nassau County bus system, amounting to $24 million in 2011 and over $140 million since 2000, that the other New York City suburban county bus systems had not received at all. The MTA asked for an additional $17 million contribution from the county: the county's contribution had been $9.1 million per year out of a total budget of $133.1 million, and the MTA desired that this contribution increase to $26 million. By comparison, Westchester County had subsidized its similarly sized
Bee-Line Bus System by $33 million per year, and that Suffolk subsidizes its substantially smaller
Suffolk County Transit system by $24 million per year. The county began to consider terminating their operation agreement with the MTA and privatizing the bus system. In response to the lack of a funding agreement, the MTA considered eliminating half of Long Island Bus' routes in July 2011, and potentially eliminating the entire system by the end of 2011. The MTA had previously slashed its Able-Ride service, which was the primary mode of transportation for many people with disabilities, and increased bus and subway fares in an effort to increase their revenue by 7.5% to close a $900-million deficit for that year. The county hoped to reduce its annual contribution from $9.1 million to $4.1 million by using a private contractor rather than the MTA to operate the bus system. The planned county contribution was later decreased to $2.5 million per year. On July 22, 2010, Mangano announced he would immediately form a committee that would explore privatizing the bus service. On September 24, 2010 he issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to privatize Nassau's public bus service. A partial compromise was reached on April 1, 2011 as the
New York State Legislature moved to provide an extra $8.6 million to avoid the July service cuts, which would have eliminated half of Long Island Bus' lines. This compromise saw Nassau County pay half the increase that the MTA had sought. No provision was made for future years, though, and later in April the MTA Board voted to terminate the Long Island Bus contract at the end of the year. On June 10, 2011, the RFP committee chose
Veolia Transport as the operator. This privatization plan was the subject of heated county public hearings in which Long Island Bus riders and employees criticized the plan. In November 2011, Veolia and the county announced a new name for Long Island Bus, NICE (Nassau Inter-County Express). Mangano also announced that a five-person transportation committee will be formed, consisting of all Nassau residents, to oversee Nassau's bus future. Fare changes require a committee vote. Prior to this, as County Executive, Mangano had stated that all routes and fares will not change for a minimum of a year, and that Veolia will be re-instituting the lines the MTA wanted to cut. He has also stated that this private-public partnership will save taxpayers $32.4 million annually. Veolia took over operations on January 1, 2012. Service cuts were announced by Veolia in February 2012, involving no route cancellations but including $7.2 million in cuts to existing routes, which was significantly smaller than the $26 million in cuts that the MTA had proposed the prior year. These cuts would take effect in April 2012. These planned cuts were criticized as occurring too soon, only six weeks after starting service. These consisted of service reductions and route concentrations planned for routes primarily serving northern and eastern Nassau County, with resources redirected towards busier routes. The Long Island Bus Rider's Union, a transit advocacy group, sharply criticized the cuts, claiming that "the announcements of service adjustments on the NICE bus website were very unclear", that service to many health care and social service centers was cut, and that "many of the NICE bus service cuts appear to be in low income communities where more people rely on buses to get to work and to access the few available health care centers that serve their needs." In March 2014, the NICE bus system faced another $3.3 million budget deficit. However, on December 11, 2014, Mangano proposed cutting $4 million from Nassau County's NICE bus contribution (in addition to cuts to numerous other Nassau County services) to replace the $30 million that will be lost after the shutdown of Nassau County's controversial school speed zone cameras.
Bribery charges On October 20, 2016, Mangano and his wife were arrested on corruption charges related to a bribery and kickback scheme, and charged in the
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York by
assistant United States attorneys Lara Gatz, Catherine Mirabile and Christopher Caffarone. The charges allege that Mangano helped restaurant magnate Harendra Singh with business deals and lucrative contracts with
Nassau County, including a "six-figure contract to supply the Nassau County jail with bread and rolls", in exchange for free vacations, home improvements, a
no-show job for Linda Mangano as a food taster at one of Singh's restaurants (Water's Edge), and other perks. Also, Singh sought Mangano's help in obtaining a loan guarantee from
Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John Venditto (who was also charged) to operate a restaurant at that town's beach. The Manganos and Venditto pleaded not guilty. took place in
Central Islip before U.S. District Judge
Joan Azrack. Singh
testified for the prosecution. In the retrial, opening statements began on January 25, 2019. Mangano and his wife were convicted of multiple counts of corruption in March 2019. In January 2021, a federal judge delayed a hearing into whether the convictions should be overturned due to a defense claim that a key government witness in the trial committed perjury. On April 14, 2022, Mangano was sentenced to 12 years in prison, while his wife was sentenced to 15 months. On September 13, 2022, as part of his appeal, his bail motion was denied by the
US Court of Appeals, thus Mangano has reported to prison at the
Federal Medical Center located in Devens Massachusetts Pending appeal, Mangano will serve 12 years and has been ordered to pay $10 million in restitution. ==Tax Revolt Party==