From the New York Times and the “actual governing is hard” file:
Facing a huge budget deficit when he took office in January, Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano did not impose a hiring freeze. He did not stop borrowing to subsidize some of the richest school districts in the country. He did not eliminate the Police Department’s beloved mounted unit.
Instead, Mr. Mangano, a Republican who won one of the first upsets of the Tea Party era, did what he had promised: He cut taxes, adding $40 million to the county’s deficit, which has since reached nearly $350 million.
Now, with its bonds suddenly downgraded and a state oversight agency preparing to seize its checkbook and credit cards, Nassau is on the verge of a full-fledged fiscal crisis.
This article appears in Dec 23-29, 2010.
Well, OBVIOUSLY the problem is that every other county in the state didn’t cut taxes as much. if _that_ had happened, then they’d have grown their way out of the recession and into more revenue, and magical pixie dust snorting unicorns the Invisible Hand of the Marketplace would have made everyone better off! Or something.