Politics Nassau County Style

    This last weekend I did a few things but mostly what I do every weekend: watched football. However the one other thing I did-during commercials-was check out the election debates for Nassau districts 1 through 9.

    Now while I am a native Long Islander I have been away for some years before coming back and don't normally follow local politics as much as national anyway. But I found it very educational I must say.

   First of all every debate is basically the same. Both candidates argue over who the biggest tax cutter is. So while Democrats of course attack Republican County Executive Dan Mangano, the grounds they do is interesting. The chide him for breaking his campaign pledge not to raise taxes.

   Technically Mangano can claim he hasn't but they point out that he has raised some fees so in effect they argue he has raised taxes. They then argue that they will really stop the growth of taxes.

    I personally, while a supporter of Governor Andrew Cuomo-he has a lot of supporters, overall his approval rating is 66 percent with and 86 percent rating for his handling of hurricanes Lee and Irene-have at least wondered about his 2 percent annual cap on property tax increases-isn't it now more than ever we need revenue?-but judging by the tone here on Nassau, Long Island it's not hard to understand the political benefit in such a position,.

   New York is widely known as a liberal state, along with Massachusetts where I had been living before returning to NY, but while that's true for national elections it's also important to understand that there are Democrat and Republican parts of the state. NY City is Democrat-though we have not had a Democratic mayor since 1993-but Nassau County in Long Island goes Republican a lot. Forget about further upstate Long Island-Suffolk County and upstate NY.

   Yet I guess I don't get it. With all the furor over property taxes is no one in this county aware that our county while one of the richest in the country is officially bankrupt and has been taken over by the Nassau Interim Financial Authority? Actions like this are not unusual today with Michigan for example facing something like this on the state level with Rich Snyder. But for a wealthy county like this to be in this position is surreal.

   Meanwhile Long Island Bus which in this rough economy more are relying on is now on a verge of being privatized. I spoke with a bus driver recently-it was actually the bus ride that took me out the Long Island Bus headquarters to reclaim my laptop I left on it a few days earlier. (My baby! I'm writing on it right now).

   For that saga please see http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2011/10/maybe-somebody-up-there-likes-me-after.html

    He was a nice guy and we had a good talk as he drove me up to Garden City where my computer was. Of course I was in a particularly good mood... I asked him about the privatization. At this point they are in limbo. First they were told to fill out a new application-which would mean they have to reapply for the union jobs they have had for 20 years. Now they've been told this won't be necessary. It sucks.

    And with all this the main concern is a property tax? No one wonders why the quality of our public institutions and parks keep going down I guess.