Nassau Drops NIFA Lawsuit

Nassau County will not pursue its lawsuit against the Nassau Interim Finance Authority’s takeover of county finances.

The order to forgo any further litigation came Tuesday from County Executive Ed Mangano.

NIFA’s six members had voted unanimously to impose a control period based upon the county’s projected $176 million deficit for fiscal 2011, a charge that county officials denied, maintaining that the budget was balanced. County officials also called the takeover unconsitutional.

Supreme Court Judge Arthur Diamond had asked the county to submit arguments by Tuesday, but the county executive directed county attorney John Ciampoli to drop the remainder of the suit.

Mangano has since submitted more than $181 million in cuts as part of a revised budget plan that includes over 200 layoffs.

Last Thursday, NIFA Chairman Ronald Stack called upon Mangano to drop the lawsuit because the board had already expended approximately $418,000 of taxpayer money in legal fees.

NIFA retained New York’s former Chief Judge Judith Kaye, now a member of the law firm Skadden, Arps as lead counsel. Attorneys from Mangano’s former law firm of Rivkin Radler represented the county as outside counsel in the proceedings.