The financial watchdog for Nassau County has approved County Executive Laura Curran’s almost $3.1 billion budget.
The Nassau Interim Finance Authority, or NIFA, found $59 million in risks in the spending plan. But they say it’s the lowest risk of any proposed budget since at least 2014.
Curran said the county is doing more with less.
“We’re beefing up our assessment system, which had been neglected for many years. We’re starting the process of opening up a couple of our police precincts, all within the confines of the budget.”
Curran said the changes to the assessment system will lead to fewer refund settlements in the future.
“The plan going forward is that we will not have to borrow, that we can just pay as we go. But we’ve gotta pay off this backlog. This is what we inherited and we have to deal with it.”
NIFA also okayed Curran’s request to borrow $100 million to help pay off a $360 million backlog of tax refund settlements. The county must submit monthly reports to show it is making progress in eliminating the backlog. NIFA said it will not approve any borrowing to refund tax claims filed after 2017.