Your views: Letters to the editor

 
Posted Jan 12, 2010 @ 04:46 PM
State offers incentives to promote consolidations

Your editorial on local government consolidation (“Our view: Time is now to finally tackle consolidation,” Dec. 28) raises a number of important points on how to make public services more efficient and effective.

Under Gov. David Paterson’s leadership, the Department of State has focused on ensuring that taxpayers get the best services possible for their money.

Through the Local Government Efficiency Grant Program, the Department of State works with local governments to reduce the cost and complexity of services. In the last three years, local governments saved some $350 million with a $40 million public investment in 240 shared-services projects all across the state. South of Utica, school districts in Rockland County are studying how to merge bus routes; to the east, Schenectady County schools are collaborating to improve the way in which they dispose of wastewater.

And right now in the Mohawk Valley, a number of Oneida County school districts and towns are studying how best to rein in health care costs for their staff, which could ultimately mean savings for the taxpayers who financially support school and municipal operations.

An important goal of the Paterson administration is to reduce our local property tax burdens and ensure that all New Yorkers are receiving value from their tax dollars. We at the Department of State encourage towns, villages and school and special districts to work with us and each other to make certain that this happens.

LORRAINE CORTES-VAZQUEZ
New York secretary of state