Reconsider cuts to the neediest

Would you be willing to pay $4 a month more in property taxes to help shield the poor and neediest of your neighbors from the harshest of cuts to county services that are their lifeline?

The weak and voiceless among us are always the most affected by the cold calculations of budget balancers, and we believe that those in great need — and the organizations in the county that serve them — deserve to have the consequences of the county’s proposed budget reconsidered.

In order to balance Nassau County’s budget, County Executive Ed Mangano unveiled a plan that could achieve that goal, but would severely impact social service agencies — and their clients — and also potentially send hundreds of county workers to the unemployment line, creating even more needy citizens.

Those left standing in the county work force could face a freeze in wages and a furlough that leaves them without 13 days’ pay.

Proposed cuts to contractual services will deprive citizens of vital services provided by agencies like the Long Island Crisis Center and the Nassau County Youth Board — lest we forget the jobs that would be axed along with those agencies’ services.

Mangano is also looking to sever ties with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, eliminating the county’s subsidy to Long Island Bus. Instead, Mangano says he wants to privatize the bus service. Yet we have not heard a coherent plan from him on how to do so. The danger is that bus lines could be eliminated for the county’s neediest residents –– the elderly, infirm and working poor. What would our small- and medium-size businesses do when the lower-wage employees they depend on could not get to work?

Mangano ran on an anti-tax platform in 2009. He promised to eliminate a home-energy tax imposed by the previous Democratic administration that year. He did that, opening an estimated $39 million hole in the county budget.

Mangano also pledged not to raise property taxes. Instead, he proposed borrowing to make up for the inevitable budgetary shortfall. That’s when the Nassau Interim Finance Authority stepped in, saying enough was enough –– the county executive could not mortgage Nassau’s future in order to avoid a tax increase now.

When the county does not take in enough in revenue –– that is, taxes –– it winds up with a deficit. During the recession, county sales tax receipts nose-dived as people reduced their spending. Lately we’ve seen the economy slowly begin to recover.

Better days –– when people are spending more freely –– appear to be around the corner. But we probably can’t count on significantly higher sales tax revenues for some time.

That leaves Mangano with two choices: raise property taxes or cut spending dramatically. He has refused to consider even the slightest increase in property taxes in order to preserve vital services that mean so much to those who need them most.

When government jobs are cut and services are reduced, quality of life is usually compromised. Residents should not be asked to accept a double-digit property tax increase to fill the gap in the county budget, but Mangano should consider a modest increase –– what amounts to less than one half of one percent of the average property tax bill –– in order to ensure that the county has the revenue it needs now and in the future to maintain its most vital services.

The county portion of a resident’s annual property tax bill amounts to about 16 percent of the total. School, town, village and special district taxes make up the rest. A resident with a $10,000 tax bill pays roughly $1,600 in county taxes annually. Less than a half percent increase in property taxes would raise the average homeowner’s bill by $48 a year, or $4 a month –– slightly more than a caffé latte at Starbucks.

With more than 450,000 homes across Nassau, that would increase county revenue by more than $22 million.

That alone would not solve the county’s financial crisis, but it could help reduce the cruelest, deepest cuts to our neighbors who depend on the services their fellow citizens pay for to get them through times of crisis, desperation, want and severe illness.

We ask county budget makers to reconsider their priorities and preserve more of the county’s services for the neediest among us.