Youth-service agencies face county cuts

Hundreds of people gathered at Nassau County’s Theodore Roosevelt Legislative and Executive Building in Mineola on July 6, rallying for the reinstatement of contracts and funds that the county cut for youth programs and substance-abuse treatment agencies.

In June, Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano sent letters to 43 private youth agencies and 15 mental-health and addiction-treatment agencies that receive annual county contracts for services, informing them that their funding would be eliminated in less than a month — unless, Mangano said, they could persuade three Democratic lawmakers to side with the Legislature’s 10 Republicans to approve a measure to borrow $41 million to pay the county’s tax-certiorari debts. (A certiorari is a challenge to a property’s assessment.) On July 5, the youth programs and substance-abuse treatment agencies’ contracts were canceled.

“We will continue the fight to restore the funding of Nassau County youth and other community services,” said Peter Levy, president of the Coalition of Nassau County Youth Services Agencies. “Closing our doors will have devastating and detrimental impacts on the lives and futures of thousands from Nassau County’s most vulnerable populations. By cutting these programs, our elected officials will cost the county and taxpayers much more in both the short and long term.”

The rally featured speakers from organizations across the county, all calling for the reinstatement of the youth programs and substance-abuse treatment agencies’ contracts.

“We continue to have healthy conversations with Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams to address youth board funding,” Mangano said in a statement, referring to the leader of the Legislature’s nine Democrats.

Protesters at the rally represented the Coalition of Nassau County Youth Services Agencies Inc., the Senior Services Provider Coalition, the Coalition of Behavioral Health Providers, the Nassau Alliance for Addictive Services and the Long Island Hispanic Coalition.