Curran touts accomplishments, says no legal pot sales in State of the County

Democratic Nassau County Executive Laura Curran touted her accomplishments and said no to legal recreational marijuana sales in her second State of the County address, delivered Tuesday night at Nassau Coliseum.

Curran pitched her vision for stronger ethics, fiscal responsibility and economic development in Nassau. She highlighted her efforts to remove the appearance of impropriety in county government -- just days after her predecessor, Edward Mangano, was convicted on several corruption charges in federal court.

Curran announced she will not support recreational marijuana sales in Nassau. She says she'll call upon the county Legislature to exercise the opt-out option if recreational marijuana sales are legalized statewide.

Curran addressed the problem of high property taxes and her initiatives to restore an equitable property assessment system.

Curran covered a wide range of other topics, including securing $8.5 million in state aid to fight gangs, providing tools for police to combat the opioid epidemic, stepping up school security and the revitalization of the county through the $1.5 billion HUB project.

Nassau Legislator Laura Schaefer delivered the GOP's response to the address, in which she targeted the Curran's reassessment plan, saying it's not transparent.

Nassau GOP response to Laura Curran's 2019 State of the County address

Schaefer also accused Democrats of holding up votes on capital projects but did say there's bipartisan support for other projects to boost the local economy. She promised the Republican majority will continue their working relationship with Curran's office.

Q&A with Nassau County Executive Laura Curran