In
1994,
County Executive Thomas Gulotta tried to raise taxes. Loud protests were heard from
the Republican party of which he was a member. He learned his lesson.
Rising costs were ameliorated by skimping on services whenever no powerful interests would be offended. The rest of the problem was concealed by
borrowing and
accounting tricks.
A few years later it became impossible to ignore the problem when Wall street rating agencies prepared to lower the rating of Nassau county bonds to near junk bond status. The governor of New York State threatened to take over Nassau county finances if the situation was not improved, but the situation remained critical into the third millenium because services had already been cut to the bone and nobody wanted to raise taxes.