Now New York State is in a fiscal morass that seems ever more serious, and there are those who believe it could have lessened the trauma by more closely following the city's example.

The city's fiscal morass has forced Mayor Bloomberg to mandate more than 3,000 layoffs in the system.

And if Mr. Suozzi can sustain his popularity and bring the county out of its fiscal morass, future statewide Republican candidates could face much more serious challenges on Long Island.

The real question on many minds is whether county leaders can change the bad habits that got them into this fiscal morass to start with.

But meanwhile, they are finally beginning to respond to criticism of the sloppy fiscal practices that have helped put the state into its fiscal morass.

The result figures to be a politically charged battle, with the need to tackle the county's fiscal morass on one side and the difficulty of taking on law enforcement on the other.

Neither has he helped New York City with its fiscal morass.

The military and fiscal morass to which the Bush administration has brought us demands the full-time efforts of our country's most capable people.

DISLODGING Nassau County from the fiscal morass it has mired itself in is no easy task.

And then there are the problems that existed before Sept. 11: the firefighters are working without a contract; some firehouses badly need paint jobs and other repairs; the city is in a fiscal morass.