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Friday, May 1, 2020
Vol. 5, No. 18
Port WashingtonTimes ROSLYN SCHOOL SCANDAL FLOWER HILLS TRUSTEE STATE ROLLS OUT FILM GETS HIGH GRADES RACE UP IN THE AIR ANTIBODY TESTING PAGES 8
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COVID-19 blows hole in Nassau budget County ready for $261M deficit: Curran BY R OB E RT PE L A E Z
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE COUNTY EXECUTIVE’S OFFICE
Nassau County Executive Laura Curran said she anticipates a budget deficit of $261 million this year.
Nassau County Executive Laura Curran announced last week that county officials are anticipating a budget deficit of $261 million this year due to the coronavirus, according to a report from the county’s Office of Management and Budget. The county is expected to see a revenue loss of $319.4 million from its $3.55 billion budget this year, the report said. The shortfall is estimated at $261 million due to the county not filling 331 vacant positions that were initially funded in the 2020 budget.
“This is where fiscal discipline is actually on our side,” Curran said about the expected losses. “We can apply the savings we got from being fiscally disciplined last year towards this crisis.” Curran said one of the most significant revenue losses is from an anticipated $136.3 million decline of 10 percent in sales tax receipts. Sales tax receipts, according to Curran, account for more than 40 percent of the county’s revenue. “That 10 percent reduction will be painful — we will feel it,” she said. Continued on Page 30
No fast-track for Nassau reopening BY R OB E RT PELAEZ Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a phased plan to reopen the state’s economy as ear-
ly as May 15, but Nassau County and its neighboring regions may have to wait longer due to various health indicators. The plan will most likely begin throughout upstate New York, since the outbreak down-
state, which includes Nassau and Suffolk Counties, New York City, and Westchester, poses the most “complicated situation,” Cuomo said. “Multi-state coordination is vital there because the New Jersey, Connecticut, New York City area is basically very intermixed,” Cuomo said. “People are coming and going, they live in one place,
they work in the other place. That coordination is important.” Before implementing the plan, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requires the state and regional hospitalization rates to be in decline for 14 days, according to Cuomo. Nassau County Executive Laura Curran said Tuesday that the county is nearing that mark and noted hospitalizations
throughout Nassau have declined for the past 13 days. “That means we are one more day away from declining hospitalizations to check that very important box for CDC of protocols for phase one of reopening,” Curran said. While the federal government defers judgment to state governors, Cuomo believes the Continued on Page 30
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