Ed Mangano

Edward P. Mangano (born March 24, 1962) is an American felon and former politician from the state of New York.

While pursuing undergraduate and law degrees from Hofstra University Mangano found the time to have a successful career in printing and publishing newspapers and, in 1988, was admitted to the New York State Bar.

Additionally he went on to serve as counsel to a local law firm, Rivkin Radler, on Long Island.

He and his wife, Linda, have two children.

He was elected in 1995 and served seven terms as a county legislator.

Mangano represented the 17th legislative district of Nassau County as County Legislator for seven terms, from 1996, when the legislature was first formed, until 2009.

This district includes areas of Bethpage, Hicksville, Plainedge, South Farmingdale, Levittown and Syosset.

He served on the Rules Committee, the Public Works Committee, the Recreation and Parks Committee, the Procedures Committee, and the Economic and Community Development Committee.

He was replaced by fellow Republican Rose Marie Walker.

Mangano was the recipient of an award from New York's League of Conservation Voters for "working to preserve open space and setting aside $5 million for the acquisition of the (81 acre) Underhill Property" and for "fighting for the “Clean Water/Clear Air bond act funding for the purpose of ground water protection".

This outcome was called "a cautionary tale" and "a black eye for the Tea Party" by Reuters, although it was noted that much of the county's financial problems had been inherited from a previous financial crisis in 1999 under the administration of then-County Executive Thomas Gulotta which had led to the original creation of NIFA.

In November 2009, he defeated incumbent Thomas R. Suozzi for Nassau County Executive.

In the spring of 2009, Legislator Mangano began a campaign for Nassau County Executive.

His platform included promises to cut wasteful spending, freeze and fix Nassau's broken property tax assessment system, repeal the new tax on home energy and electricity use, and halt the practice of borrowing and relying on debt to pay current expenses.

In an upset in the November 2009 election, Mangano narrowly defeated the incumbent, Thomas Suozzi, winning the county executive position by 386 votes.

He led the Republicans to a major victory, in which they took three of the four county-wide positions, and regained control of the County Legislature.

In October 2009, Mangano's brother's business, New Media Printing, in Bethpage was found to have more than $900,000 in federal and state tax liens.

Mangano stated that he no longer had an interest in this company.

Mangano promised that if elected, he would repeal a $38 million home energy tax on homeowners passed by former County Executive Tom Suozzi, which cost households on average $7.27 a month.

A Republican, he was the Nassau County Executive from January 2010 to December 2017, and a former legislator in Nassau County, New York.

During his inaugural address, Mangano fulfilled his promise by signing an executive order to repeal the tax as of June 1, 2010.

His administration estimated the repeal would save families and seniors hundreds of dollars each year.

He eliminated a 13% property tax hike proposed by Suozzi.

Due to the lost revenue from the tax cut, the Nassau County Interim Financial Authority (NIFA) found that the county's $2.6 billion budget was out of balance by $176 million.

This led Moody's Investors Service to downgrade the county and put its finances on outlook negative.

NIFA did not consider Mangano to have a satisfactory plan to make up for the lost revenue, and seized control of the county's finances.

The budget was approved by the Nassau County Legislature on October 30, 2010, with all 8 Democrats voting against and all 11 Republicans voting in favor.

Mangano has implemented several tax initiatives including "$35.6 million in revenue" garnered "from increased real estate fees that" have added "hundreds or thousands of dollars to the cost of buying, selling or refinancing properties in the county."

A CBS news story about the proposed inclusion of a $105 surcharge for every issuance of a traffic or parking ticket in Nassau County quoted several county residents deriding potential fallout from such fees; in the same story, Mangano said "the fee would help pay for the police force to work overtime in policing public events, and would alleviate homeowners from potential tax increases".

In his proposed 2011 budget, Mangano proposed the removal of the county guarantee, a policy that saw Nassau County repaying taxes that were wrongfully collected and distributed to school taxes.

Under the new policy school districts in Nassau, like the rest of the country, would be responsible for returning funds collected in error.

In November 2013, he was re-elected, again defeating Suozzi, by 59% to 41%.

This was met with heated opposition by the school districts, who objected that they would immediately be forced to begin setting money aside to pay the property tax refunds starting in 2013.

In October 2016, a 13-count federal indictment for fraud and bribery was unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York against Mangano, his wife Linda, and Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John Venditto.

On October 5, 2016, Nassau County legislature Democrats opposed Mangano's tax plan, claiming it was a 9.4% tax increase.

He did not seek reelection in 2017.

He and his wife were both convicted in March 2019, and faced up to 20 years in prison.

In April 2022, Mangano was sentenced to 12 years in prison and has since reported to prison on September 13, 2022 pending appeal.

Edward Mangano was raised in Bethpage, New York, one of three siblings born to John and Rachel Mangano.

During high school he worked as a janitor, in order to earn money for college.