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Cuomo calls for less local government
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo speaks to redundancy of local government structures

By RICK KARLIN, Capitol bureau
First published in print: Tuesday, February 10, 2009

COLONIE Attorney General Andrew Cuomo began his week by taking his quest to consolidate New York's byzantine collection of local governments on the road. Specifically, Wolf Road.
     
While his travels on Monday were confined to a roughly two-mile stretch of that suburban thoroughfare, Cuomo managed to span the state's political spectrum, meeting with members of the New York Conservative Party as well as a convention of county executives.

While the first group might sound like an unlikely stage for a Cuomo a Democrat and Clinton administration alumnus whose father, former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, was ousted from office in part by their opposition the attorney general found the Conservatives to be a surprisingly receptive audience for his warning that overlapping or outdated government structures are crippling New York.

Cuomo's address "resonated with most people," said Thomas Teresky, a Conservative Party member from Suffolk County, Long Island.

Cuomo got a similarly warm response from county officials, even as he called for less government and bemoaned the calcified condition of New York's bureaucracy. "There is an operational dysfunction in the state of New York," said Cuomo, who threw in a bit of soaring rhetoric that recalled his father's oratorical style.

"It was very much a speech that would appeal to a lot of New Yorkers," said Kathy Jimino, the Republican Rensselaer County executive.

Cuomo's proposal, unveiled in December, would make it easier to consolidate some of the state's 10,521 governmental bodies, ranging from sewer or sanitation districts to villages and towns, if residents so desire. (The actual number of bodies, he noted, could be even higher.)

Many of these districts are strongholds for local political machines, and Cuomo acknowledges that passing a bill to eliminate them would be a challenge, given the number of state lawmakers who view them as the "bread and butter" of the state's vast patronage landscape.

But during a meeting Monday afternoon with the Times Union editorial board, he said history has shown that such government mergers are possible: In the 1930s, there ..................http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=768591

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While his travels on Monday were confined to a roughly two-mile stretch of that suburban thoroughfare, Cuomo managed to span the state's political spectrum, meeting with members of the New York Conservative Party as well as a convention of county executives.

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While I agree with the objectives of smaller, less intrusive and less costly government, I am concerned that Mr. Cuomo's goal is to eliminate layers of local government (village, town, county) and cede the powers and decision making to higher, more abstract and inefficient levels of government.   Granting governance on local issues to faceless and uninformed bureacrats who are located outside the impacted communities is not a form of representation that I support.

The reduction in the size and reach of government that is needed should begin with the reduction in the number of federal and state mandates that are imposed upon our communities.  Power should be returned to local levels of government that can address and reflect the opinions, desires, and views of the residents.

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TIME TO LOSE SOME LOCAL GOV'T
By GEORGE MARLIN

IN this time of economic ills and budget crisis, it's time to hone in on the hidden costs of New York state's 10,500 local government entities. State leaders can't afford to ignore the fine reform plan from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Our state Constitution was designed to maintain local control and fiscal integrity by giving municipalities and their citizen taxpayers the maximum authority to make fiscal and policy decisions. But, over the last 60 years, this approach to governing was corrupted by political hacks and bureaucrats who created more than 4,000 "special improvement districts" - each with independent tax and spending power - to serve as patronage mills. The resulting costs, especially salaries and benefits, and inability to realize efficiencies of scale are now killing taxpayers. Most local taxpayers are protective of their school libraries and fire districts - but unaware of these many other redundant shadow governments. My home county of Nassau, for instance, is laden with 249 special districts that handle an array of services including garbage, parks, lighting, sewers, water and drainage. The county "Statement of Taxes" that I get as a homeowner includes levies for 18 special districts - taxes that rise every year. These obscure, unchecked patronage dens contribute significantly to New York's highest-in-the-nation local taxes - and to the rush to exit the state. For example, more than a quarter of Long Island's young adults have moved away over the last 15 years - off to greener pastures where local property taxes are substantially lower and housing is affordable. Now comes Cuomo's bold proposal. He rejects the big-government idea of consolidating county and local governments to multiply the power of Albany bureaucrats. Instead, he calls for local communities to be given non-compulsory referendum power to reform their municipal subdivisions. The plan, if passed by the Legislature, would allow the elimination of scores of conflicting, confusing, inconsistent antiquated laws that perpetuate these entities. Citizens, not bureaucrats, would be empowered to reduce their tax burden by deciding in the voting booth which districts should be consolidated or eliminated. And Cuomo's plan challenges the local power base of Republican hacks as well as those of Democrats and municipal unions. Whether Speaker Sheldon Silver will allow Cuomo's proposal to come to a vote in the Assembly is uncertain. Putting this power in the hands of the voters would be revolutionary and could be the spark that ignites taxpayer revolt at all levels of New York government. George J. Marlin, the 1993 Conservative Party candidate for New York City mayor, is the author of "Fighting the Good Fight: A History of the New York Conservative Party."

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Andrew Cuomo will be appearing at the Schenectady County Community College tomorrow night at 7:00 pm to discuss his ideas about health care, the
environment, labor and a laundry list list of other items. There was no mention in the invitations about his smalller government agenda...but then again, he is now in occupied Schenectady, not a conference full of conservatives, where his ideas about reducing the size and cost of government was well
received. It was however, the only topic he discussed at CPPAC. I plan to attend tomorrow night to hear his ideas on these other subjects.