By Hank Russell
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman recently released his proposed budget for 2025. In it, residents will see no tax increases. In addition, there will be more money for salaries and educational and social service programs.
As part of the $4.067 billion budget, Nassau residents will not see a hike in their property taxes. All district taxes — fire, police and sewer — will remain unchanged. To keep the sewer fund stable, Blakeman has proposed taking $16.9 million in the fund balance, which is $4.6 million less than what was used last year.
The proposed budget also includes the addition of 38 positions in the Police Department, the Comptroller’s Office, the Department of Corrections, the Health Department and the Department of Social Services. It also sets aside approximately $30.2 million to fund nearly 325 full-time job vacancies.
Also included are a bump in workers’ salaries and fringe benefits to $1.775 billion, compared to $1.666 billion in this year’s adopted budget from the Nassau Interim Finance Authority (NIFA), but there would be a slight decrease in workers compensation from $38.1 million to $37.9 million.
There are also plans to make major increases to social services. Early intervention and special education services would get a boost of $22.2 million to $185.0 million. An additional $62.1 million would go to direct assistance, totaling $278.6 million, while Medicaid would get $9.2 million than in last year’s NIFA adopted budget, up to $254.3 million.
Blakeman noted that the county experienced “negative growth” and took “a cautious approach” that he said was “preferable” when coming up with the budget. “Projecting growth has been very unpredictable given the many looming economic worries,” he said.
Minority Leader Delia DeRiggi-Whitton (D-Glen Cove) panned the budget, calling it “a glaring example of how federal assistance and opioid settlement funds meant to support our residents — especially taxpayers, small businesses, and first responders recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic — are being misused.” DeRiggi-Whitton said the money, which “should be used for critical drug treatment and prevention efforts, are instead padding a mismanaged budget.”
She also accused Blakeman of breaking his promise to cut taxes and used the money to spend “millions on celebrations that seem more about self-promotion than public service.” She also said she found it “extremely concerning” that the budget “[relied] so heavily on reserves, COVID recovery money and other one-time revenues streams to obscure how close the County is to being in a budget deficit.”
Long Island Life & Politics also reached out to the Legislature Majority Leader’s office and Blakeman’s office. Neither responded as of press time.