Seeking to smart-size government
Cuomo hails new law on consolidating, dissolving entities
State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo challenged government officials and regular citizens Thursday to take advantage of a new law that makes it easy to consolidate or even dissolve some of the 10,521 layers of government in New York.
During a news conference at his offices in Main Place Tower, the attorney general said the law he has championed for the last several months is now in effect after it was passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. David A. Paterson in June.
The task now, he said, is for government officials such as county executives to initiate the process of consolidating or dissolving. Barring that, he said, the new law allows regular citizens to eliminate some of the governments that he says make New York the most heavily taxed state in the nation.
“Let the citizens have a voice,” he said. “Why? On the random chance that the politicians are not doing it.”
Cuomo, joined by Assemblymen Sam Hoyt and Dennis H. Gabryszak of Erie County along with Fredonia Mayor Michael J. Sullivan, sounded what has become a familiar refrain during the months he has been pushing the legislation. He cited the layers of government — which he called often duplicative and unnecessary — as one of the reasons for such high property taxes.
“We have 10,521 governments,” he said. “Just imagine all that expense and overhead; all that personnel. We’ve been adding governments as we are losing people. How do you do that?”
He singled out county executives as some of the best officials to take advantage of the new measure. Erie County, for example, has the highest number of local governments in the state, Cuomo said. “In my opinion, a county executive should do that,” he said. “[The law] also allows citizens to do it themselves. That’s why we call it citizen empowerment.”
Formerly, signatures from 33 percent of a village’s residents, for example, were needed to put the measure on a ballot for a villagewide vote. The new law lowers the number of resident signatures needed to 10 percent of a village’s registered voters, or 5,000 people, whichever is less. For entities with fewer than 500 people, signatures from 20 percent are needed.
The measure also makes it easier for a county to start a dissolution or merger process of local entities within its borders. In addition, it ends inconsistent methods for consolidating public entities.
Opponents contend that the measure will affect services ranging from garbage collection and libraries to sewer and water services and, in the end, could even boost the number of government units in the state. Moreover, the biggest collectors of property taxes – school districts, which account for nearly two-thirds of taxes raised in New York — are exempt from the bill. Cities and counties also are not covered.
Cuomo said information on the dissolution or consolidation process is available online at www.reformnygov.com.
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