Government consolidation (December 2007)
On Sept. 27, 2007, newspapers across New York State published their second in a series of occasional Upstate Focus editorials.
The issue of concern chosen for that day was governmental consolidation.
Each newspaper published its own opinion, reached independently. Here are the editorials:
Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Weighed down
Taxpayers across Broome carry burden of too-much government
A little more than a year ago, Broome County held sessions for citizens interested in government consolidation showing them how the process works and what steps they needed to take to pursue it. The sessions drew interest in earnest from residents of two villages, Windsor and Johnson City, which could be dissolved into their surrounding towns, Windsor and Union.
Residents gathered signatures on petitions that would be presented for review, and if enough authorized signatures were collected, the village governments would be forced to figure out what would be needed to dissolve the village and then put it on a ballot for the residents to vote on in November. Both efforts were stymied at the petition level. In the case of Windsor, some of the 225 signatures representing at least a third of the eligible voters, were deemed not properly notarized or witnessed. In the case of Johnson City, of the 2,761 signatures collected, 263 were rejected and the trustees and mayor rejected the petition.
The Johnson City effort was especially contentious because it pitted weary taxpayers against village-paid firefighters and police concerned that they would lose their jobs if dissolution occurred. There were accusations from both sides that the other was putting pressure on residents to join their sides.
That’s not the end of either story, though. Last week the residents of the town and villages of Windsor met to discuss findings of a study to see what savings would occur with dissolution of the village into the town. As for Johnson City, state Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Tait determined last week that the 263 dissolution petition signatures were indeed legal. So both efforts are not dead yet.
Meanwhile, the taxpayers across Broome County continue to shoulder tax increases they cannot afford. Some bear the weight of three layers of government. That’s insane. Broome County comprises one city, seven villages and 16 towns across 707 square miles. There are also 12 school districts within the county. It’s simply unreasonable to expect taxpayers to support these excessive layers. Their paychecks and savings can go only so far.
Tough choices are needed. So-called “sacred cows” such as police and firefighters must also be included in the consolidation discussion. Imagine what could be saved by streamlining the layers of government, having one county school district, creating a metro police and fire department across Broome.
In August of last year, Broome County Executive Barbara Fiala said that “We have talked this talk to death.” A year later, nothing earth-shattering has taken place but at least there is some perceptible movement. What will be the tipping point that will unleash a countywide-effort toward consolidation? Spare us more talk. Let’s see some action.
Buffalo News: Revive consolidation
There are 40 days left in this year's political campaigns. But that's not the number you want to remember.
That would be 439, the number of elected village, town, city, county, state and federal government officials and judges supported by Erie County. Or $32 million, which is what it costs to support them.
Not all 439 officials are running for office this year. Far from it. But all of them ought to be thinking about the cost of government, the cost of duplicated or overlapping services, the need for so many balkanized jurisdictions and who gets helped -- or hurt -- when "turf" is blindly protected. And those who are running ought to be talking to you about it while it still can factor into your voting decisions. You need to know what they're thinking, if you want any hope of easing the hurt.
Unfortunately, "regionalism" is a bad word here. It fell into disrepute with its champion, County Executive Joel A. Giambra, in Erie County's unrelated green budget-red budget debacle. But Giambra's push toward saving money through consolidations and cross-governmental officials was a good one, and demands revisiting. "Consolidation" is a good word. "Survival" is more urgent one.
Erie County lost nearly a third of its young people during the last decade, posting the highest rate of decline for 25- to 34-year-olds in the nation. Buffalo's tax base has been in decline for years, only now showing signs of revival. Schools are being pushed toward redistricting by population shifts and population loss. The economy remains nearly stagnant, taxes remain high and both the city and the county have state-mandated financial control boards to impose fiscal constraints they couldn't find the political will to impose upon themselves. This region can't afford not to seek ways to deliver services more efficiently and more cheaply; the incredible shrinking city of today, and its environs, simply can't continue to pay for the incredible bloated political and governmental service structure of a more prosperous past.
Last year, a study of the size and cost of Erie County's local government -- including 44 villages, towns and cities and 28 school districts -- put a cost to that support: $32,140,386 in salaries and benefits per year for the 439 elected politicians, more than a quarter of a billion dollars for elected officials and their staffs over the past decade. Researchers led by local lawyer and activist Kevin Gaughan also found that the county has as many as 10 times the number of politicians that other regions do -- far more than the 64 elected officials in New York City or the 95 in Greater Baltimore, for example -- and that many of our political jobs cluster in suburban towns and villages.
But beyond the jobs and salaries, there also are questions of scale: How many school districts (and their central administrations) do we really need? Is it necessary to keep politically separate villages that once were population concentrations in vast rural landscapes but now are only slightly more settled neighborhoods on the suburban scene? Wouldn't regional planning, rationally mapping out open spaces as well as residential and commercial clusters, make more sense than decisions more narrowly viewed by small jurisdictions?
There is nothing new in this. In 2004, the Public Policy Institute of New York State found that we pay 42 percent more for our many layers of government than other parts of the nation, and a two-year study led by former University at Buffalo president William B. Greiner in the 1990s urged consolidations. Now Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer has appointed a statewide Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness, headed by former Lt. Gov. Stan Lundine, to study this once more and plan a state push to move government structure from the 19th to the 21st century. You can weigh in at a day-long hearing Oct. 24 in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Erie County has submitted six consolidation initiatives, among the 26 cited by this eight-county region, but only Allegany and Genesee Counties are considering disolving or merging governments (the full list is at www.nyslocalgov.org/local_initiatives_county.asp).
Wholesale change is blocked not just by entrenched politicians but by residents who don't want to give up their own village police force, their own boards and councils, their own anything. That costs. There have been steps toward cost-saving -- partnerships for waste disposal, city-county parks management consolidation, mergers of water systems -- and small municipal consolidations helped by county and state funding. More needs to happen. It should be a campaign issue now, and a part of this community's conversation until this job gets done.
Elmira Star-Gazette: Sharing for good of taxpayers
Governor’s push, local examples warrant closer study by all governments of cost-saving moves
Utter the words shared services in front of public officials and they’re apt to applaud the concept or shudder at it. Say the phrase to residents of a community and their reaction is likely to be much the same.
Shared services can be perceived as either a cost-savings godsend or a political stink bomb. It all depends on perspective and facts.
New York’s Gov. Eliot Spitzer stands in the former camp, and despite a recent scandal that has distracted attention on the governor’s agenda, Spitzer is absolutely doing the right thing by making shared services a key part of his first term in office.
It is a concept that has long caught the attention of officials in Chemung County, though with mixed results. But there are enough successes in the books to justify continued efforts to coax parochial local governments into combining forces, maintaining quality services and lowering costs — or at least keeping them in check.
Sometimes attempts are virtually effortless, such as the decision this year by the Town of Southport to turn over its police enforcement to the Chemung County Sheriff’s Department. At other times, such attempts are flatly rejected, which was the case when West Elmira officials, facing strong objections from residents, backed off a similar arrangement between their police department and the sheriff’s office.
Despite the setbacks, though, officials need to keep exploring ways to cross government boundaries to maintain a level of services that don’t continue to bloat New Yorkers’ local tax bills.
One such move worth duplicating is the creation of a shared highway program involving the county, four towns and a village that County Executive Tom Santulli put forth in 2006. Not every municipality joined, and that’s fine, says Gerald Benjamin, a professor at SUNY New Paltz who praised the Chemung County highway initiative.
“The road program is an excellent example,” he said. “I like the idea of going ahead with those willing to go along.” In fact, the county’s shared highway services proposal is a featured case study on the New York Department of State’s Web site.
Benjamin is among a cadre of New York government experts who have long clamored for reforms that would streamline efficiency and save money. Robert Ward, deputy director of the Rockefeller Institute in Albany, is among those who, like Benjamin, sees huge advantages in shared services but also much reluctance among officials to take the plunge.
Ward, who served on one of the governor’s shared services advisory committees, pointed to a resounding success in the Albany area when four counties jointly built a regional youth detention center in Colonie about 10 years ago. But he also has seen sharing attempts fall through, such as one between the town of Berne and Albany County.
“It’s the kind of thing that makes those of us for good government bang our heads against the wall,” Ward said. In Chemung County, officials have a chance to avoid that head banging and be responsible with taxpayers’ money by remaining open-minded to shared services studies and seeking state money to study new and cheaper ways to deliver services.
Whether it’s as complex as combining city and county administrative functions or merging Southport’s one-officer police department with the county, the willingness to break from the past is almost as critical as the savings.
Shared services are not a panacea for all government spending, but they can offer smart alternatives to the expensive status quo. Spitzer wisely has recognized that potential and wants a shared services mindset to be part of the governing culture in the state. Local officials who don’t buy into that same thinking are shortchanging their taxpayers and making New York a more expensive place to live.
Rochester Democrat & Chronicle: Radical reform
Local government in New York is too costly and inefficient
It’s been obvious for decades that, as long as taxpayers can afford the costly, inefficient way that government operates in New York, there will be no major push for change.
Well, guess what? Though New York has the highest tax burden in the country and huge budget deficits at practically every level of local government, few leaders can summon the political courage to propose radical reform.
Fortunately for this community, Rochester Mayor Duffy is one of a handful willing to at least say “we can’t go on this way. The city and county are both struggling. We have to look at bringing entities together. We need to look at metro government at some point.”
He actually said it—the feared “M-word.” But before Monroe County Republican Chairman Steve Minarik starts reviving the PAC-man political ad he used against former Mayor Bill Johnson to frighten county residents about the prospect of a countywide school district, let’s be clear: Duffy merely suggested examining the merits of metro government. That’s hardly a ringing endorsement, but it’s at least a worthwhile start.
Actually, it makes sense to thoroughly re-examine all layers of local government with an eye toward making them work better. It’s a job that Gov. Spitzer’s new Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness is undertaking.
Statewide, there are 4,200 taxing entities and the number is still growing. Last year, for instance, two new villages were created in Orange County. And just two months ago, the village of Monroe broke away from the town court system to create its own court and two taxpayer-funded judgeships.
No wonder local government taxes in New York are the highest in the nation, 71 percent above the national average. What’s so puzzling is that while taxpayers complain, they also seem all too willing to continue paying salaries and benefits of those who run local government, from, city, county, village and town leaders to police and fire personnel.
In this schizophrenic environment, Spitzer’s new commission, which includes well-credentialed leaders such as Johnson and Brighton Supervisor Sandy Frankel, can’t complete its work soon enough. The 15-member panel, which recently released 150 initiatives submitted by local governments to reduce the size of government, will make final recommendations to Spitzer by April 15, 2008.
The commission, currently holding public hearings around the state, recently released 150 initiatives submitted by local governments to reduce the size of government. The nearest hearing in this area is scheduled for Oct. 24 in Buffalo.
Meantime, the commission is continuing to hold hearings around the state. Frankel and Johnson should insist that Rochester be added as a hearing site. After all, there is much that the panel can learn about duplicated services and inefficient government in this region.
While it’s true that municipalities are working together more than ever to reduce costs for such services as insurance and highway maintenance, the savings is doing little to close mammoth-sized budget gaps.
Monroe County, for instance, has a $100 million budget deficit over the next two years, yet big ideas have been limited to a “community solution” proposal that has little bipartisan support. The initiative that County Executive Maggie Brooks’ administration submitted to the commission calls for local government pooling their resources to reduce insurance costs. Good idea, but that effort hardly will put a dent in the county’s budget gap.
As some contend, maybe there isn’t a huge savings to be gained from major consolidations. But it’s at least time for weary taxpayers to find out the facts based on empirical research. Studies conducted by independent researchers can go far to help educate taxpayers about the merits of, say, converting the Monroe County Water Authority to a county department, creating a countywide police force, or merging the city and county.
There are no shortage of examples of major consolidations that have been completed over the past decade in such cities as Nashville and Louisville. Currently, there are consolidation discussions in Memphis. Spitzer’s commission must give leaders like Duffy, who are willing to speak up, the help they need to get the ball rolling on local government in New York for the 21st century.
Syracuse Post-Standard: Consolidation phobia
Logic keeps the idea alive in the face of parochial pressures
“I’m a little apprehensive, because I wouldn’t like to see our present services diminished."
"The issues that pertain to governing Westvale are clearly different from those of Solvay."
Comments like these illustrate why government consolidation is the third rail of local politics. It’s fine to talk about streamlining government, cutting taxes, thinking regionally. Local leaders have promoted mergers for years — with little to show for it.
The latest boost to consolidation comes from the state Commission on Local Government Efficiency, which last week issued a list of 150 ideas gathered from local officials. Among the proposals: consolidate tax assessment and collection in Madison County; merge the Syracuse and Onondaga County economic development and purchasing offices; dissolve Tioga County into its neighboring Southern Tier counties.
Most of these ideas aren’t new. Yet Syracuse and Onondaga County haven’t even been able to combine "back-office" functions like purchasing. In addition to parochial pressures at work, it’s about public jobs and turf and trust.
One cautionary tale still resonates locally — the Syracuse-Liverpool police merger in 1998. Although Liverpool taxpayers saved some $100,000 per year, voters chose new leaders who canceled the deal. Similar proposals foundered in Solvay, Geddes and East Syracuse.
Over the years Onondaga County has taken over public libraries, create a forensic sciences center and a unified 911 system. But the county still has the same 35 local governments it had a century ago, with 105 legislative, planning and zoning entities, plus hundreds of special districts for street lighting, fire protection, sewer and water and the like.
Albany offers generous grants to study consolidation of the state’s 4,200 local entities. Earlier this year, Baldwinsville Mayor Dan O’Hara proposed a merger with the neighboring towns of Lysander and Van Buren. However, O’Hara was named state fair director and the initiative lost momentum.
Lysander took at least one small step. After the town tax collector retired two years ago, Supervisor Barry Bullis and Onondaga County Executive Nick Pirro arranged for the county to collect local school and property taxes. The town saved $30,000, and Lysander is ready to make the arrangement permanent.
In neighboring Madison County this spring, more than 50 local leaders endorsed centralized tax assessment and collection in a meeting at Morrisville State.
As he nears retirement, Pirro predicts consolidation will continue on a small scale. Why not share salt sheds, he wonders. Why not bulk-order snow plows? "You will see municipalities keep doing this," he says. "They can’t keep taxing the way they do."
Earlier this year, Geddes Supervisor E. Robert Czaplicki and Solvay Mayor Anthony Modafferi agreed to explore combining police and highway departments — after 20 years of on-and-off talks. "I think we will run into the same issues again, but it doesn’t hurt to talk about it," says Czaplicki.
If Westvale and the rest of Geddes ever figures out how to join forces with Solvay, the era of consolidation will have arrived.
Watertown Daily Times: Chance to change
Now is the time to consider consolidation
New York Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer has done a service to the state just by restarting the discussion on government consolidation.
Last week, his Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness released 150 new ideas from local officials throughout New York on how to reform local government to better serve the people.
Some of the proposals are ambitious: dissolving Tioga County and merging it with parts of three neighboring counties; consolidating several cities and towns that share the same name -- such as Chenango, Cortland, Batavia and Oneonta. Thirteen counties are considering merging town and county highway services. Nine are entertaining similar proposals to merge water, sewer and storm water systems within their counties, the Associated Press reported.
When you have 4,200 local government entities in New York state and property taxes that are among the nation's highest, reform and reorganization are called for. New Yorkers face layers of local government - county, city, town, village and special districts that handle services such as fire, library, sewer and the like.
The commission intends to hold public hearings on the 150 projects it identified as worthy of consideration. The task force will submit its own recommendations by April 15.
This is a chance for local officials and citizens to examine the government that is closest to home. For all the good ideas that may emerge from the governor's commission, few or none will be forced upon local communities. Deciding to change will be left up to the people, as it should be.
But we should keep an open mind.
Locally, nine ideas for consolidation made the cut. In Jefferson County, the panel recommended exploring countywide assessment and consolidating police and court functions in the villages of Carthage and West Carthage. St. Lawrence County will consider centralizing tax collection and code enforcement and sharing highway services. Joining town, village and city justice courts is also on the docket.
A regional water and sewer authority will be discussed in Lewis County. The possibility of having a central highway garage and maintenance shop to be shared by the county, town and village of Lowville, and the school district is also being pondered.
The discussions are worthwhile and more ideas are sure to emerge. The Spitzer administration has opened wide the door to possible consolidation throughout the state. It is an opportunity to improve local and county government and to pare away unnecessary layers of bureaucracy.
Our eyes should be on new government models that will best serve the people. This is a good time to consider what needs changing and how to do it.
We should seize the moment.
