Opposition To Government Consolidation Bill
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- May
- 27
Andrew Cuomo’s bill on government consolidation hit a snag today when three senators refused to back it in a committee meeting.
Cuomo’s proposal, likely to be voted on by both houses of the Legislature next week, would make it easier for local governments and citizens to merge and abolish towns, villages, special districts and other government organizations. Cuomo says taxpayers could save millions by cutting the number, which is now in excess of 10,000.
But Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer, D-Mamaroneck, said she’s worried the bill might make it too easy to put the matter on the ballot- Cuomo’s bill would require just 10 percent of voters to sign a petition – and doesn’t require a detailed plan before the vote. She also said she doubts much money would be saved.
“This could cause some serious disruptions,’’ she said.
Sen. Tom Morahan, R-New City,  voiced similar reservations.
“What are the savings? I’d like to see some numbers,’’ he said.
The two suburban lawmakers, along with Sen. Craig Johnson, D-Nassau County, voted “without recommendation’’ to pass it out of the Local Government Committee. Five other lawmakers, including committee chair Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, voted yes.
Oppenheimer said she plans to talk to Cuomo aides to try to work out their differences.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 at 2:07 pm by Jay Gallagher.
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Elected officials do not need 25% of the electorate to sign petitions to get on the ballot. Consolidation/sharing of government service petitions should also be easy to obtain. Once petition signatures are collected voters will make the decision—whether to cut the size of government.50%+ of the voters will make the decision.
Let the people decide what kind of government we want.I hope our state lawmakers approve this bill. This is what democracy should be all abou
PAUL FEINER
this is really initiative and referendum…it should
be noted that when andrew’s father was governor and
we tried to get it for the whole state, Mario Cuomo
said the people “don’t know what they want” quite
a turn around for the son…however until local
governments like greenburgh under paul feiner stop
building unnecessary libraries at a cost of 20 million
dollars a pop, and until we eliminate the police
beurocracies within greenburgh including places like
dobbs, irvington, hastings, ardsley, and the separate
fire departements, and separarte courts, and separate
schools all with their own superintendents you will
not achieve a tax savings worth talking about
1) This whole bill is a vehicle for Andy Cuomo to run for Governor, First and Foremost….
2) Every community has at least 10% malcontents who would love to disrupt everything, no matter how good or bad the government is…and this gives them the chance to set up referenda and keep people focused off of the real issues…
and to settle political vendettas that they couldn’t win on Election Day…....
3) By the way, in this bill, the COUNTY gets to abolish a local government if it wants. Maybe this is a way for Andy Spano to get back at Paul Feiner. Should the County have that power? NO.
4) How come cities, counties and school districts aren’t included, only little villages and towns? Because Cities, Counties and School Districts have big unions like NYSUT, CSEA, Police and Firefighters who would kill Cuomo and all the others who jump onto this badnwagon…so let’s just pick on villages and towns….
5) This is an invitation to rich ideologues and disgruntled developers to overturn local govts that don’t do what they want…”Vote YES on Prop 1 and save taxes!” That’ll fool people into getting rid of their local village zoning and planning powers, and letting the big boys build where they want….
6) Editorial Boards love this consolidation stuff. They’ve already consolidated editions, so they can spend less on staff covering every little community that they don’t care about anyway….
7) Village + Town property taxes = 20% of your tax bill. The untouched county and schools are 80% !!!!
HERE’S HOW TO CUT TAXES:
DEAL WITH STATE MANDATES, Boys and Girls
CHANGE THE PAYMENTS FOR MEDICAID
RESTRUCTURE UNION BENEFITS AND PENSIONS
But nooooooooooooo…we’re ready, willing and able to kill the little villages and towns (who run the cleanest governments). Mr. Feiner would love to usurp his six villages into his Town bureaucracy – that’s why he likes this plan.
DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOFUS
Not since the beginnings of this ‘republic’ has there been more stupidity in the government’s adoption of idiotic law!!! Referring specifically to the CITATION ACT of 1782 and CONFISCATION ACT of 1779 enabling ‘patriots’ to take advantage of ‘tory loyalists’ in both property/deed – ANDY’lil-mafioso’CUOMO believes he has been empowered by some divine provenance to usurp the powers of the cities/towns/municipalities to the will of an ever-encompassing state+federal government!!! Get in line to get your ticket to be part of the new COMMIESIRS and their take-over of everything. YOU TOO CAN BE A ‘USEFUL IDIOT’ FOR ‘the OBAMA’ and his OTIOSE HONCHOS such as ANDY’lil-mafioso’CUOMO the next LAURENTI BERIA!!!
In the end, they do nothing. They do not consolidate; they do not deal with State mandates; they do nothing with the Medicaid monster. They ignore and give lip service to any and all of these issues. They have no interest in restructuring union benefits and pensions and, as has always been the case, at day’s end they will come up with some kind of Frankenstein that ends up costing even MORE taxpayer dollar, not less. It is imperative that the public gets behind this consolidation effort if only to exert serious populist pressure on these scramblebrains.