To Consolidate or Not
By Scott Feldman
Attorney General Cuomo crafted the bill. And Governor Paterson this week signed it. A measure to streamline local governments and special taxing districts–like garbage, fire, sewer, water. Already Village mayors across the Island are blasting it. I talked today to Bayville Mayor Victoria Siegel. She tells me people chose to live in a village because of quality of life and services. And she doesn’t think consolidating or abolishing her village makes a bit of sense. She says villages already work together to save money in purchases of vehicles, office supplies, etc. Nassau County Executive Suozzi is a big proponent of consolidation. Originally, he did not include villages or fire districts. But now, Suozzi tells me something has to be done because property taxes are just too high on Long Island. But he says, “the hard part now is how do you do it, what is the right way to do it.” He adds, “you have to know it will save money and services will be the same or better than they were before. If you can’t do those two things, you shouldn’t consolidate.” Suozzi says he’s now going to put together a committee from all the government entitities to come up with a plan. Suffolk Executive Steve Levy tells News 12, ” we are evaluating the effect of any new measures granted to counties under this act, and will give serious consideration to measures that could potentially enhance efficiency and lower taxes.” Already, the anti-consolidation forces are mounting a defense. There’s a newly created Long Island Special Districts Association that will lobby for amending the new measure. Mayor Siegel tells me she and other village mayors are now considering whether to challenge the law in court. The irony is that this new measure doesn’t include school districts. That accounts for about 66 percent of everybody’s property tax bill.
June 26th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Over 300 pages of ideas on consolidation or alternatively, collaboration for Long Island here … http://www.onelongisland.com
June 26th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Incorporated villages pay a second tax. I do not want this tax to go into a general fund, like my school taxes. There are also many services within an incorporated village that are not provided by the county or township that enhance the services and beauty of the village while enhancing the value of the property.
June 27th, 2009 at 10:02 am
Actually, as I said when the bill was introduced, the irony is that nobody can point to a SINGLE case where consolidation has lead to a decrease in overhead. When school districts merge (as they frequently do in other parts of the country), they never remove Board member positions. Everybody keeps their position, but now they need to hire MORE people to help out with the added communications overhead. This doesn’t change if it’s a fire department or garbage collection system.
And that doesn’t even begin to account for the specialized handling of local needs that local governments can perform better than larger governments.
Basically, this is just a State grab for power over local governments, and I wish Siegel and her other mayors well in fighting it. It’s a bad idea and will not make anything better for anybody…except the administrators and consolidation experts.
If nothing else, think about this: Albany can’t even figure out why its budget is in the toilet (have we seen a CAFR, this year?), and can’t even figure out how to pass a bill, at this point. Do you really want to trust them with making sure there’s someone to put out a fire at your house?
June 28th, 2009 at 11:42 am
THE QUALITY OF LIFE WE ENJOY IN THE VILLAGE OF AMITYVILLE HAS BEEN IN PLACE FOR A HUNDRED YEARS AND COUNTING!OUR POLICE AND FIRE DEPTS ARE AMONG THE BEST !THEY ARE ALL LOCAL RESIDENTS WHO RESIDE IN OUR VILLAGE.OUR SCHOOL TAXES ARE STILL REASONABLE AND OUR SCHOOLS OFFER MANY EXTRA AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES SUCH AS FOOTBALL.SOCCER.BASEBALL.SOFTBALL,VOLLEYBALL,GOLF,TENNIS AND TRACK TEAMS THAT COMPETE ON A VERY HIGH LEVEL.AS WELL AS AN AP PROGRAM ;QUEST;& HONORS.WE ALSO OFFER MANY CLUBS SUCH AS THE MATH TEAMS AND BANDS THAT ARE RECOGNIZED THROUGHOUT THE ISLAND AND THE STATE.WE DO ALRIGHT AND DONT NEED ANY OUTSIDE HELP EXCEPT FOR OUR FAIR SHARE OF REVENUES FROM THE STATE!THANK YOU