Nassau Legislature votes to amend proposed 2022 budget

Nassau County legislators voted along party lines Monday to amend the county’s executive’s proposed 2022 budget, a decision that Republicans say could save taxpayers millions of dollars.
Nassau Legislature Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello says lawmakers voted 11-8 to make key changes to the budget.
“The residents really have been overtaxed,” Nicolello says. “We’ve been building up a surplus, and we’re using some of that surplus to pay the residents back.”
He says the changes include cutting taxes by an additional $50 million, bringing total property tax cuts to $120 million, removing $100 million in fees incurred by Nassau residents, completely eliminating red light camera public safety and tax map verification fees, as well as reducing mortgage recording fees to $50.
Democrats, meanwhile, say the new budget could hurt Nassau residents down the line.
In a statement to News 12 after the vote, Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams said in part: “We refuse to be complicit in a return to the type of speculative, yo-yo budgeting that brought this county to the brink of fiscal ruin. This is why the minority caucus continues to support County Executive Curran’s budget – a fiscally responsible and balanced framework for delivering meaningful tax relief to Nassau County residents.”
County Executive Laura Curran’s proposal was a $3.5 billion spending plan that cut $70 million in property taxes and reduced taxes by $150 million.
Nicolello says the vote to amend Curran’s proposal is a better deal for taxpayers.
The amended budget will now head back to Curran.
Jordan Carmon, senior communications advisor for Curran told News 12: “The Legislative Majority today continued their flailing efforts to obstruct and delay action using the same political games that bankrupted our County under Ed Mangano. The County Executive thanks the Legislative Minority for voting against the amendments the GOP majority is using to throw the County’s budget into fiscal chaos.”
The amended budget will now head back to Curran, she has ten days to either sign or veto the bill.