Making the case against county governent – UPDATED
-
- May
- 1
As Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano and about 700 of his supporters gathered at his birthday bash/campaign fundraiser last night, another well-attended meeting was taking place on the other end of the county.
It was the first meeting of the so-called citizens task force formed by Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner and Yonkers City Councilwoman Joan Gronowski to weigh the possible abolishment of county government. About 200 people attended the meeting at the Will Library in Yonkers.
Among those taking part was Republican Rob Astorino, who is a likely candidate for county executive in 2009.
Astorino, in an e-mail, reported that most of the speakers at the meeting favored the abolishment or downsizing of county government.
“They all felt county government needed to be reformed in some way,” Astorino said. “There was a real good mix of Democrats and Republicans.”
Astorino said the panel intends to meet again in about a month and invite officials from Connecticut, which does not have county governments.
UPDATED – a reader of Politics on the Hudson just e-mailed to say that the crowd estimate of 200 was way too generous. The more realistic count, according to the e-mailer, was about 50.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 3:50 pm by Glenn Blain.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
| 
Email This
Astorino should be one of the first to be abolished.
200 people was a good turnout for that meeting. The Spano gang may be catching on to the fact that many in Westchester are sick and tired of his government, and particularly sick of Ryan and friends in the Legislature.
And speaking of government, it is being reported that the Feds have served two more subpoenas in Yonkers, on the City Council again. For Patricia McDow, her second. And for Sandy Annabi, apparently her first.
There are only two states without County government CT and RI.
Maybe Astorino should read the State report on downsizing government where it states that many more services be located moved to County government aka regional government.
Get rid of the state government, too. We’d be better off with a benevolent dictator than misfeasant chimps.
This is all a waste of time and a pipe dream. Only the NYS government can abolish the county governments and there probably is not one state legislator that supports eliminating the counties. The State farmed out various services (like social services and sewage treatment) long ago because it did not want to deal with them. And Board Watcher above is right, most thoughtful reviews of consolidation of governments have found that we can save more money by eliminating local governments like villages and fire districts and by having the county provide regional services that are currently being done by about 50 municipalities all at once, which is a total waste of money.
However, with that said, we should elect new people to County Executive and County Legislator. Westchester County is crying out for independent and fiscally responsible leadership.
Massachusetts does not have County government either. The two county governments that have taken over a broad array of sevices from municiopal governments are Nassau and Suffolk, and they are bankrupt long term patronage havens. Bad as Westchester is becoming, we are not near our Long Island brethern yet, and I don’t think that is where we want to go. People prefer their municipal governments because they are far more accesible, and accountable. When one side overreaches or becomes out of touch, they are quickly replaced. This is true regardless of party. County government has become too bloated, too meddlesome, and too inefficient. While there are some functions it should retain, it needs to get a lot smaller, cheaper, and without the political and public relations thicket that has grown up around it.
New York needs Initiative, Referendum and Recall
New York badly needs term limits. Badly.
Why do we even pay county tax in Westchester.
Look at Connecticut. Right next door to NY and they pay approx. $3200 property tax where in Westchester you would pay approx. $10,000 for the same property. Go ahead and throw in the CT “car taxâ€. No biggie. You only pay about $250 a car. Throw in 3 cars in CT and you are still under $4K a year. So Westchester, what does that other $6K get you? I’m moving to CT!!