NIFA is guided by a seven-member board appointed by the Governor of New York, with one member recommended by the Senate Majority Leader, one by the Assembly Speaker, and one by the State Comptroller.
[6][7] Gulotta, a Republican, had proposed a tax increase in the early 1990s, and was almost defeated by North Hempstead Supervisor Benjamin Zwirn in 1993.
[16] That act reduced tax to the revenues county budget, and about a year after Mangano was sworn in, NIFA re-instituted a control period.
[18] Prior to that court decision, the Republican leader in the county legislature, Peter Schmitt, appeared to liken the bipartisan members of NIFA to a Mafia family.
[19] The Mangano-NIFA relationship, with a control board in place, was marked by almost annual disputes over the budgets that Mangano submitted and the county legislature approved.
[24] Jon Kaiman, who at the time was supervisor of the town of North Hempstead, was appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo to be chairman of NIFA in 2013.
)[28] The two contenders for his position, Republican Jack Martins, a former State Senator and unsuccessful U.S. House of Representatives candidate a year earlier against Suozzi, and Democrat Laura Curran, a former newspaper reporter for the New York Daily News and a county legislator, both said during the campaign that steps must be taken to bring Nassau out from NIFA oversight.
[29] Curran won the election, and NIFA issued a deadline to offer any significant changes to the Mangano 2018 budget, the one with the NIFA-ordered cuts.
At that meeting, the "conundrum" that Curran faced, with a Republican legislative majority rejecting her plan to hike fees to help close the budget gap, was discussed.
NIFA hired the same individual that the county legislature had rejected just a few months earlier, raising questions about whether its "seat at the table" was proper or an unauthorized expansion of its role in day-to-day operations.
[38] In early April, local newspaper Newsday wrote a story questioning whether NIFA was treating Curran with a softer approach than Mangano.
[41] In June 2020, NIFA approved the use of Goldman Sachs as the financial advisor on any new borrowing the county might need to undertake as a result of the pandemic.
However, noting the difficult economic times, NIFA said in its approval message that the county would need to develop a plan by March 31, 2021, to be updated regularly, on dealing with projections of future deficits.
[44] But in releasing the report, NIFA chairman Barsky said the county had not eliminated its structural deficit and that it still faced long-term financial issues.
Strengthening county finances due to several different factors did lead to renewed discussion in fall 2021 whether NIFA needed to continue either the control period, or even its existence.
[47] In October 2021, NIFA weighed in on what amounted to a battle of dueling tax cuts proposed by both Republicans and Democrats prior to the 2021 election.
[49] On Election Day 2021, Curran suffered a shocking loss in her attempt to be re-elected, falling to Republican candidate Bruce Blakeman.
[52] Also in July 2020, NIFA approved the sale of $230 million in short-term funding as Nassau County looked to fill a revenue hole created by the pandemic.
Republicans had raised objection to such borrowing because the length of the term needed to get the best interest rate would mean that Nassau would not be able to end NIFA oversight for many years, since the bonds would be long-term.
"[61] In the November 8 issue of The Point, Newsday's daily politics newsletter, the question was raised how Blakeman and NIFA might work together.
Given the extensive cuts in revenue that the Nassau Republicans promised during the 2021 election, which had just been completed at the time of the newsletter's publication, NIFA's Barsky raised the question of whether a similar scenario might play out next year.
[63][64] In December, when NIFA approved the 2022 budget, the final one of Curran's tenure, Barsky addressed the fact that Republicans in the election had promised large cuts in fees and taxes.
I did explain to both of them that it really doesn't matter, because after we approve the budget, if there are things that take place post-budget that put the county out of balance, then NIFA will expect and require them to make necessary adjustments to account for whatever the change is.
The April 12 article in Newsday's daily political newsletter, The Point, also suggested that Blakeman was moving the Republicans back to a more adversarial position, making NIFA the "boogeyman."
Barsky said federal COVID money and a surge in sales tax revenue had been akin to a lottery win by Nassau, but that he believed the county was still under a structural deficit.
As Newsday's column on local politics The Point noted, with the county finances strengthening, there has been a push to end the NIFA control period that has been in effect since 2011.
[67] The discussion in The Point newsletter followed a Newsday editorial that said while the end of the control period had some justification, there were other steps needed to be taken by the county to justify such a change.