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PLATTSBURGH — New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo visited the North Country Saturday afternoon to address government reform both on a state and local level.
The attorney general spoke to concerned citizens and local legislators, including Sen. Betty Little (R-Queensbury) and Clinton County Republican Chair and Assemblywoman Janet Duprey, at a press conference held at the Plattsburgh Town Hall, making clear that he understood what citizens of the North Country and statewide face every day.
"Today, with the economic downturn, New York State taxes are stretching families and businesses beyond limit," he said.
The event provided a forum for Cuomo to rally public awareness for the "New N.Y. Government Reorganization and Citizen Empowerment Act" that was signed into law June 25.
The law was created to dissolve wasteful government spending and reduce taxes by calling on elected officials and citizens to reorganize and potentially consolidate the 10,521 government entities that impose fees and taxes in New York State.
"When you ask why taxes are so high, the answer is because we have too much government," Cuomo said. "Local property taxes are so high because we have too many local governments."
In an effort to illustrate just how expansive New York State government is, the attorney general's office has designed a Web site, www.reformnygov.com. One of the main features of the site is an interactive map that breaks down the numbers of governments and special districts by county.
In Clinton County alone, there are 143 local government units, ranging from county, city and town entities to school, fire and other special districts including water and sewage, which means there is one government for every 574 people in Clinton County.
The attorney general said the statewide average is one government for every 1,100 people.
"The question is: When you look at the configuration, do we need all of those governments as they exist, or is there a better, cheaper way to provide these services?"
Cuomo said he created the site to allow taxpayers to see for themselves how much government overlap exists in the state. If they feel local government entities need to be reorganized, they have access to consolidation or dissolution petitions on the site.
"This law empowers citizens so that if their local government isn't moving fast enough, they can take matters into own hands," Cuomo said. "They can put an issue on the ballot locally to vote for governments to merge and share services."
Previous legislation required different signature requirements for petitions, but the new law allows for an uniform requirement of 10 percent or 5,000 signatures (whichever is less) to initiate a vote on reform.
For districts with 500 or fewer electors, the petition requirement is 20 percent. Cuomo said this makes it easier and more efficient for a statewide, representative government to function.
"Citizen empowerment options are going to create an energy that makes the local officials look at this issue seriously," he said. "Why? Because if the local officials don't do anything about it, the local people can."
Phil Racine attended the press conference Saturday and said that as a member of the chamber government and a taxpaying citizen, he believes ordinary people will pay attention to the new legislation.
"Everyone here has been receptive," he said. "We need to reduce the size and expense of the government, and make sure that, in effect, it trickles down to the tax payers. We need to make New York state an attractive state again for businesses and people who want to live here."
The attorney general said he understands consolidation, or even dissolution, of state services cuts jobs, but he said it's something that needs to be considered for taxpayers during this economic downturn.
"The Wall Street jobs were about 25 percent of the entire state budget," he said. "It was a roaring engine that generated revenue for the state, and now that's stopped so we are going to have to make changes because it is not an option to keep increasing taxes."
Cuomo concluded by saying the new law was not a mandate for reorganization, but provided stronger legislation for citizens to induce change.
"Nothing in this law says anyone has to do anything," he said, "but if you want to find a way to start a discuss about how we got here in the first place, this is the vehicle to do this."
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