Below is the first installment of Curtin's column. See next week's issue of the Eagle Observer to see Curtin in print.
A Case For the Village
By John P. Curtin
Much has been made lately of the issue of consolidation. Much has also been made of the idea that the most logical type of consolidation is for the Village to dissolve into the Town. This has become even more debatable with the recent passage, at Attorney General Cuomo’s urging, of “The New N.Y. Government Reorganization and Citizen Empowerment Act,” set to take effect in March 2010, and rushed through the State Legislature without any public hearings. This act makes it easier for villages to consolidate or be dissolved and many have seen it as a natural outgrowth of what they feel should be “good” government.
I am very much opposed to the dissolution of the Village and feel that the public must be adequately informed on the issue of consolidaton. I also feel that this latest attempt by the Attorney General and the State of New York is nothing more than a way to attract media attention and address a situation that seems to offer a “quick fix” for the tax situation in New York State. With all of the levels of government that there are in New York State, and the proliferation of so many special taxing districts (all of which have nothing to do with villages), this latest ploy by the State of New York is merely an attempt to divert attention from the real problem with rising taxes – unfunded State mandates and rising property taxes that fund schools, counties, fire departments, libraries, etc. Villages, for the most part, do not contribute to the rising tax rate in New York State – in fact, they are probably the most efficient and cost savings governmental entity in the entire state.
“There are 10,521 overlapping governmental units in New York, providing duplicative services creating needless wasteful bureaucracies” (AG Governmental Reorganization Act). Of that number, 556 are Villages and 932 are Towns, 698 are School Districts, and 7792 are Special Districts (water, sewer, refuse, park, lighting, sidewalk, drainage, etc.) The rest are cities, counties, fire and fire protection districts.
In Onondaga County alone, there are 941 overlapping governmental units including 1 County, 1 City, 19 Towns, 15 Villages and 18 School Districts. There are also 188 Lighting Districts, 177 Drainage Districts, 20 Fire Districts, 35 Fire Protection Districts, 10 Park Districts, 20 Refuse Districts, 220 Sewer Districts, 143 Water Districts, and 74 Other Districts. These figures are from the Office of the Attorney General of New York.
In the Town of Marcellus alone, there are 22 Special Districts, not including the Fire District and the Ambulance District. These special districts exist because the people in the districts benefit from having them created. They provide water, sewer, etc. – basic services for which people are quite willing to pay – and they operate quite well, despite the sheer number of them. What seems to be the main target for consolidation by the AG’s Reorganization Act, however, is Villages – they are an easy mark and linking them with the overwhelming number of special districts in the State (almost 8,000) is a way to garner media attention to the problem, as the AG sees it, of overlapping governmental units.
In this new Reorganization Act, the call to consolidate, or dissolve, is particularly leveled at Villages and Towns, not school districts, cities, counties or city and county-created districts. These latter districts collect over 80% of property taxes in the State, while Villages and Towns together collect about 11%. These figures are from the Office of the New York State Comptroller. As will later be pointed out, the dissolution of the Village into the Town would only lead to the creation of even more Special Districts – ones that will be required in order to provide for the services that are part and parcel of why Villages were created in the first place. This not efficiency, nor will it produce tax savings.
Bigger is better, according to many proponents of consolidation. Many others argue that smaller is better, and villages, which provide the type of government that is closest to the people, are the most democratic of all New York’s government institutions.
It is vitally important that the public be adequately informed of this issue and the new Reorganization Act. In a future series of questions and answers to be published in the Eagle Observer, it is hoped that a Case For the Village will be appropriately presented and argued.
