Bruce Blakeman's $3.9 billion budget clears Nassau legislature

The Nassau County Legislature on Friday unanimously approved County Executive Bruce Blakeman's $3.88 billion budget for 2023 after Democratic lawmakers tried unsuccessfully to tack on an amendment to hire 110 more police officers.

Legislators approved the budget in a vote of 19-0.

The spending plan will go to the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, the county's financial control board, for final approval.

Blakeman, a Republican, said his budget had no property tax increase.

Key initiatives include funding for 44 new positions in the Nassau County Police Department, including 36 new police officers.

The budget boosts county spending by $166 million.

It adds 15 positions to the county fire commission, 10 to the sheriff's department and nine to the district attorney's office.

There are no changes to county fees.

At a budget hearing Friday, a partisan quarrel developed over state bail laws after Democrats attempted to introduce amendments to Blakeman's spending plan.

Legislative Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park) refused to call the amendments, saying Democrats hadn't properly "noticed" the measures to the public.

Democrats sought to hire 25 officers for a proposed “Hate Crimes Division” and 85 new officers “for increased police visibility” throughout the county.

Legis. Kevan Abrahams (D-Freeport), the minority leader, chided Republicans for opposing increased "foot patrols" to deter crime.

"I'm boggled by the mindset that you don't support it," Abrahams told Nicolello during debate.

"We have control today to do what we can do to ensure that our Nassau County residents are safe," Abrahams said.

Nicolello responded by raising the issue of bail laws that took effect in 2020.

Under the law, judges can no longer impose bail for most misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies. Violent felonies and some misdemeanors are still “bail eligible.”

"You can have all the officers in the world to go out there, but if the person you're arresting is getting out of jail and walking free before you complete the paperwork, that's a problem," Nicolello said.

"It's not because we don't have 100 extra cops on the street, it's because of insane policies by the State Legislature," he said.

Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder testified that too many defendants were being released on bail.

"If you had more officers, you always have more visibility, but that doesn't solve my issue of crime," Ryder said. "Because if I have 1,000 officers, and I arrest 1,000 people, I have 1,000 people coming out of jail because of cashless bail." 

Abrahams said with his party's amendment "we're adding to your budget, we're going to make your budget higher." 

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A state report released in September showed criminal suspects were being rearrested at roughly the same rate as they were before the overhaul of the bail law was enacted.

The report also indicated that judges, who can’t assess bail as frequently as before, were increasingly deploying nonmonetary supervision tools such as ankle bracelets to monitor suspects.

The report was issued by the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, an agency under Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s control.

But its data closely followed findings that Newsday reached when it crunched the numbers earlier this year.

In a statement, Blakeman said his new budget would "add 36 sworn police officers to our ranks to combat" what he called "the pandemic of lawlessness sweeping our region, and fulfills my promise to protect resident's wallets."

According to a NIFA analysis released last week, Blakeman's 2023 spending plan could produce a budget deficit of up to $39.3 million.

Nonetheless, NIFA Chairman Adam Barsky said risks in the budget were "manageable."

By Scott Eidler

scott.eidler@newsday.com@ScottEidler

Scott Eidler covers Nassau County government and politics for Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.