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Overcast County Legislature discusses Coliseum plan
Will vote next week to hold referendum
The Nassau County Legislature spent more than two hours on May 24 debating and hearing public comment about a proposed $400 million bond that would finance a new arena on the site of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Under the proposal, spearheaded by County Executive Ed Mangano, the arena would be built on the Coliseum grounds at the county Hub, along with a minor league baseball park. The Coliseum would be torn down. The plan would be financed by a $400 million bond, which taxpayers would have to approve in a special election, now planned for Aug. 1.
According to Chief Deputy County Executive Rob Walker, if the bond passed, it would create a new tax line for residents. The average increase, Walker told the Legislature, would be about $48 a year. However, it is Mangano’s hope that revenue sharing with the New York Islanders would reduce — and perhaps eliminate — the cost to taxpayers.
The Legislature is planning to hold a vote on May 31 to decide whether the referendum should be held — weeks before it receives any concrete details on the plan from Mangano. But as Presiding Officer Peter Schmitt pointed out, if the Legislature passes the referendum vote, it has until 15 days before the referendum to rescind its decision if not enough information has been made available.
“Let the people decide, on August 1, if they wish to invest in their county,” Mangano told the Legislature. “We can be the premier northeast sports entertainment destination.”
The discussion was preceded earlier in the day by a rally on the steps of the Legislature, where Mangano joined other supporters of the project — mainly union laborers and Islanders fans. Many of the supporters had left, however, by the time the subject of the Coliseum came up — four hours into the meeting.
But there were still many union representatives left, and they addressed the Legislature, saying that their unions supported the project and wanted it to start as soon as possible so their members could get back to work.
