« BACK  |  PRINT

RS

FRONT PAGE CONTRIBUTOR

Andrew Cuomo tells local governments to consolidate.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  March 16th, 2013 at 10:04 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Alternate title: Son, you’re on your own.

The New York state budget currently under negotiation may be remembered years from now as the beginning of the end for many small towns, cities and school districts.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo had tough words Friday for local officials facing fiscal crises and seeking more help from Albany, telling them they should consolidate services or whole governments and school districts rather than looking for relief from Albany.

(H/T: Instapundit) Translation: Andrew Cuomo has made all of the tentative, half-hearted attempts that he dared to rein in public sector unions. Any further shortfalls in revenue will simply have to be borne by the local authorities. If they don’t like that, well, they should have joined a public sector union.

Moe Lane (Crosspost)

PS: Hey, you know that ‘temporary’ millionaire’s tax NY has? Well, guess what…

 

A second extension of the so-called temporary millionaire’s tax which raises $1.9 billion a year is also being discussed in a budget that was billed to have no tax increases, according to two state officials familiar with the talks. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss issues in closed-door negotiations.

They want to do that now instead of in 2014, when it might be an actual election issue. Of course.

PPS: Lest you think that I’m ignoring the NY GOP’s role in all of this… I’m not. Right now they’re playing the ‘tax cuts tax cuts tax cuts’ game, largely because that’s a lot easier than playing the ‘cut entitlements and spending’ game. I’m from the Northeast myself, but goodness gracious: most of the state parties (on both sides) are fairly useless…

Tags: , ,

COMMENTS

POSTING RULES  |  LOGIN TO COMMENT  |  REGISTER TODAY
  • captkirc

    Here in Jersey we could really use some of that consolidation. The amount of small municipalities with their own PD, FD, school districts, etc is one of the largest drivers behind the insane property taxes that we pay.

  • Duke

    Wisconsin property taxes aren’t really anything to brag about, but we’ve got a strong heritage of small local municipalities, most of which operate their own FD and/or PD. The counties around the state usually coordinate EMS, but only run a full-time professional Sheriff’s Dept. The smaller municipalities operate volunteer FD and EMS, and some of the villages have their own PD that links up with the county.

    As a county and town official myself I’d have to say it works well and, if you can keep the EMS zealots from overloading the county budget, it’s fairly economical. The taxpayers get what they pay for, and in some cases keep the costs down by actually providing their own emergency services as volunteers.

  • hobokenred

    Corzine tried to encourage/cajole NJ munis into consolidation about 5 years back and met with stiff resistance from residents. People just don’t want to give up “local rule”.

  • captkirc

    One of the things Jersey residents love most about living here is the high level of government services provided throughout the state. Some of these real small towns take it too far though especially with the school systems. It is felt the hardest by homeowners but it trickles down to renters too. It’s a classic case of you get what you pay for. People loves the services but hate the taxes.

    That said, still wouldn’t want to live anywhere else lest I be forced to learn how to pump my own gas.

  • captkirc

    You’re absolutely right. It’s not a question of Democrat or Republican rule either. No one wants to lose their locally run services or the jobs this newfound efficiently might cost them. Everyone wants less spending in the abstract until it directly affects them.

  • walter_hanson

    Do the democrats understand that the Washington imposed solution can’t work. The one thing about every local government doing something is the same thing as the federal government trying to do it for every government. They don’t have the resources either.
    Walter Hanson
    Minneapolis, MN

  • Change Jar Conservative

    I’ve actually thought that in a conservative philosophy, getting rid of levels of government might be a good start as well.
    Get rid of homeowner’s associations (the least conservative form of government since all they do is pry into personal matters).

    Get rid of townships, towns, cities, etc and roll them into counties and parishes. If people want to split their counties into smaller pieces then fine, but that way, people are under a maximum of 3 layers of government:
    Federal
    State
    County
    As oppossed to the sometimes six or even seven that you might get stuck with now.

  • checkmate2012

    Cuomo to counties is analogous to Obama to D’s during the election: you’re on your own. It’s hilarious since the Left is so vocal about spreading the wealth and fair share but they really don’t want to share their marbles.
    .
    Can the NY counties start fracking for oil & gas? How about cupcake or large soda sales to make up some revenue? No, no and no.
    .
    It may get worse per this article and the Census, “Census shows record 1 in 3 US counties are dying off” and “NY ranks near the top for young residents moving away”.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/14/census-record-1-in-3-us-counties-are-now-dying/?intcmp=obinsite#ixzz2NlUlAu7q

  • sestamibi

    Every NJ governor talks about consolidation of services–especially the ones who get defeated for re-election (like Corzine and Jim Florio before him), once they can speak freely.
    I left NJ because I simply couldn’t afford to live there any more and pay the obscene property and income taxes there.

  • http://www.licgop.com licgop

    While I generally respect Moe’s posts this one misses an important point in that the GOP only control the state senate with the votes of 5 Democrats who formed their own caucus. They only control the bills that come to the floor part of the time. There are days where a Democrat serves as president of the body with their agenda. To the credit of the GOP they’ve done this deal to keep some say in what happens. Ultimately though they are in no position to block anything.

  • sestamibi

    You find those arrangements mostly in the northeast and the midwest, where smaller forms of municipal governments (towns, townships, boroughs, villages, etc.) exist under county governments. In the south and west, if you don’t live in an incorporated municipality you live in “county”. For example, here in Nevada there are only 18 incorporated municipalities in the state (although they account for the vast bulk of the population). However, some significant urban territory is unincorporated. The Strip, for example, is outside the city limits of Las Vegas.

  • midwestconservative

    Great so we have to worry about a bunch of liberal New Yorkers moving to the heartland and bringing their disease with them

  • kipling

    I am not so sure. I would argue in a federal system that we need a minimum of at least three layers of government. Not because we want duplication but to divide the governing power and to set it against one another. The Progressives want an unitary state model with a powerful central government dictating to all levels of government. We need to create barricades to federal authority.

  • WmCraig

    Too bad about them being useless. At least closer to where I live the sheeple are getting really agitated. In Philadelphia (my local big blue city, but not where I live) all the yuppies, and the elitists are mad at the mayor for raising there real estate taxes. A lot. All the owners of the “in places” are screaming about commercial real estate taxes going up. Both of these are caused by an “actual value initiative” that was sold on the basis of “fairness”. But somehow, is resulting in big tax increases. (as if no one could figure out that if you buy a row of abandoned buildings for practically nothing and turn them into the hottest spots in the region, pack them with rich socialites and generate huge profits that the real estate value might go up, in actual value, and therefor the taxes will go up.

    Then there is the government workers union, that is pissed at the mayor because he is going to cut wages, increase contributions, and doesn’t plan to give the workers a cost of living adjustment. So here is the mayor, he is hated by the home owners, hated by the “in crowd business owners” who the city needs to generate buzz, and he is hated by the unions that work for the city.

    Somebody explain to me please why Republicans cannot win an election there?

  • walter_hanson

    Mid:
    Remember in 2010 we had a self made women spending millions in California and had her butt kicked by an over the hill former governor who is doing his best to destroy the state.
    Keep in mind he has the prochoice crowd in his camp. He has the antigun crowd in his camp. He has the poor in his camp.
    Mind you Donald can probably run a better campaign than Meg, but unless New York goes to hell before 2014 Cuomo will win easily.
    Not to mention Donald is thinking if I’m running for anything it will be President in 2016.
    Walter Hanson
    Minneapolis, MN

  • checkmate2012

    Yep. But not to worry, the population is still moving to the Sunbelt so you’ll probably escape the epidemic. Not us in TX and FL….we’re doomed.

  • grumpyKoz

    “they should consolidate services or whole governments and school districts rather than looking for relief from Albany”

    I have one better. How about we relieve Albany of our requirement to provide any tax revenue.

    What if we secede from N.Y. and create the 51st state. This would work perfectly if just Long Island were to go. Long Island would be well into the top 1/3 of the existing states for population and economy. And if we didn’t have to send our tax money to Albany, we could have a VERY, VERY prosperous state.

  • thx1138v2

    Consolidation simply means “more centralized”. It doesn’t surprise me that Cuomo would suggest it.

  • thx1138v2

    Consolidation simply means “more centralized”, i.e. central planning. The next step would be to consolidate counties leaving only state governments. And the next step…
    Each step just means fewer people in control for a given area. I hope you don’t think that’s a good thing.

  • markkozikowski

    Simple. More than 50% of the voting age public live in the major cities. They want give-a-way EVERYTHING.
    They don’t even want to pay for subways tolls, breakfast of lunch.