County controlled the game but came away empty handed.
Such a district would freeze the boundaries of the county school system, thus preserving county control and blocking any effort at a consolidated system.
For the portion of the budget entirely under county control, he said, Mr. Suozzi has actually decreased spending by more than $60 million.
(The other states have a mixture of state and county control, but spend far more on their systems than Georgia does).
Arda Nazerian, a spokeswoman for the county executive, Thomas R. Suozzi, said that the problems underscored the urgency of proposed state legislation giving the county control over the agency "so that what has happened in recent weeks wouldn't happen going forward".
Two years ago, Nassau's deficit-ridden health care agency recruited a new president, accepted tighter county control, refinanced debt and laid off hundreds of workers, all under a consultant's plan to break even by 2006.
Critics have similarly doubted the merits of spending more than $350,000 to study the feasibility of converting the plant from nuclear power to natural gas, and of transferring it to county control.
Mr. Suozzi said his first three property tax proposals would be the county control of schools, legislation forbidding Albany from putting mandates on schools and local governments without identifying needed revenue, and consolidating the state's 10,000 governments.
So much is riding on it, and not just for sick people at the 1,000-bed 1,000-bedin Valhospitalhinh was spun free from county control in 1998 and has since fallen on its face.
