February 14, 2018
Over the past several years, government leaders across the state, in urban, suburban, and rural areas, have been concerned about rising costs and issues relating to the structure and organization of local government in New York State.
Governor Mario M. Cuomo has consistently expressed concern about the large number of local governments in New York State, their overlapping authority and territory, the lack of an apparent logic in the distinctions among types of local government, and the relatively small size of many of them. In his 1990 State of the State message, Governor Cuomo announced his intention to “appoint a Blue Ribbon Commission chaired by the Secretary of State and composed largely of local government officials to encourage the consolidation of local government.”
Concurrent with the Governor’s announcement in 1990, the Rockefeller Institute of Government formed a task force on the structure of local government and its efficiency and effectiveness. The objectives of this Institute project were to identify and analyze major issues of government structure in New York and to develop recommendations for model legislation.
Although this is an introduction to a project which stresses incremental steps, I believe a case can also be made for the more sweeping consolidation of local units through restructuring of governmental entities simply by using good old-fashioned horse sense. What other structure — corporate, academic, or social — has not more efficiently reconfigured itself to accomplish its mission?
All too often, studies, many of them offering well thought out recommendations by insightful, intelligent, and committed persons, lie unimplemented, unrequited, and unsung gathering dust on the shelves of academe. To do our best to avoid such a fate for this local government restructuring project and to vindicate the time and talent of its many contributors, it was agreed that the project recommendations would take the form of model legislation. Thus, actionable outcomes would result. The ultimate responsibility for the final form of the model legislation rests with our elected officials. Legislation enacted now will affect how we govern ourselves for years to come. In recognition of that responsibility, I hope the task force and its advisory committee can review the legislative progress of these model bills and offer help and encouragement to achieve a wise and successful legislative result.
When Benjamin Franklin stated “we must hang together or, assuredly, we will all hang individually,” he was speaking of dire consequences, in dire times. His sentiments on unity and cooperation for the common good remain valid today. If New York is to achieve its potential in the nineties and beyond, we must “hang together” conceiving and seizing good ideas for consolidation and regionalization. Without this cooperation we will be left suspended amid an environment of missed economic opportunities, crippling internal competition, and costly, overlapping services.
The persons contributing to this study are the intellectual insurance protecting us from such an outcome. Accordingly, I want personally to thank my co-chairs on the project, Richard P. Nathan and Robert D. McEvoy. Their time, energy, scholarship, and experience drove this effort. Special thanks to Frank Mauro whose organizational and project management skills have contributed greatly to a successful outcome. A particular note of appreciation to our expert advisory committee for their time and input; we were most fortunate to have the finest academic and public and private sector minds in the country working with us.
In closing, I acknowledge the work being done by Secretary of State, Gail Shaffer, Chair of the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Consolidation of Local Government. Gail’s participation, via the Governor’s Commission, clearly demonstrates the true partnership forged among the academic, public, and private sectors in this endeavor.
