Nassau is among the nation’s wealthiest counties — and the richest in New York — as measured by per capita income.

It has 1.3 million residents and a median household income of almost $95,000. There are 37 private golf courses. It’s the kind of place where a home might be listed for $25 million and described as “inspired by Marie­Antoinette’s Le Petit Trianon.” Even the Garden City Water Works is housed in an elegant, medieval-looking brick building from the 1870s.

It’s a generous place too, and the salaries of its town and county workers reflect its good fortune, Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its April 18 issue. Two school superintendents are the best paid in the state, earning about $380,000 each. Starting salaries for public librarians are as high as $63,000. A county policeman with eight years of service earns a base salary of $108,000. The 2011 budget for the Hempstead animal shelter includes $3.25 million in salaries for 38 employees.

Not surprisingly, it’s an expensive place to live. Property taxes are close to $9,000 on average, the second-highest in the U.S. after New York’s Westchester County. It’s also broke.

On Jan. 26 the six members of the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority, or NIFA, a nonpartisan state-appointed commission, said that, for the second time in a decade, it would take control of the county’s finances.

Nassau’s elected officials, led by County Executive Edward P. Mangano, had insisted that everything would be just fine…..

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