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Mayors from around the state spoke out Monday against Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to tie state aid for municipalities to developing proposals for local consolidation plans.
“The only thing it provides is a mandate from the state,” Peter Baynes, executive director of the state Conference of Mayors, said. “It’s not something that can be forced down from above.”
Under the governor’s proposal — included in his executive budget blueprint — counties would be required to devise ways to consolidate and share services. Those plans would then go before local voters.
The idea would need legislative approval. If lawmakers are opposed, the budget calls for withholding unrestricted state aid to municipalities, or AIM funding, worth $715 million.
Dating to his days as attorney general, Cuomo has bemoaned what he says are duplicative layers of government in the state, such as villages within towns or special service districts in some communities. He believes consolidation would save money on local property taxes.
But those gathered at a convention for the state Conference of Mayors said they already share services, in part because the state’s current property tax cap strains their finances.
Mayors, from large communities on Long Island and Westchester County to villages of a few thousand people in western New York, recounted the kinds of consolidation moves or shared services they already do on an informal basis.
“It’s a very collegial group,” White Plains Mayor Tom Roach said, explaining how localities lend heavy equipment as needed.
Mayor Rick Milne of tiny Honeoye Falls, near Rochester, said officials combined summer recreational programs with schools and other municipalities.
The proposal sparked some finger-pointing at state government and school districts, entities that participants said compose a far larger chunk of most property tax bills.
“They are picking on the wrong people,” Cobleskill Mayor Linda Holmes said.
Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi hit back: “We understand some people want to protect their fiefdoms at all costs, but the governor’s plan is to get municipalities to talk to each other and actually lower taxes for property taxpayers,” he said. “Theirs is to increase state costs that will be borne on the same taxpayers. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is not the answer.”
With state AIM funding flat since 2009, cities, towns and villages have lost an estimated $133 million to inflation.
In contrast, NYCOM members say, school funding since the post-2008 recession has recovered and this year will have caught up with and exceeded the inflation rate. State school aid is more than $24 billion.
“We love our schools, (but) we just wanted to point that out,” Roach said.
rkarlin@timesunion.com
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