Paterson proposes changes on special districts

BY ELIZABETH MOORE | elizabeth.moore@newsday.com

May 1, 2008

ALBANY - Gov. David A. Paterson proposed legislation yesterday to eliminate pay and perks for special district commissioners and put town boards in charge of sanitation districts.

Those are among the recommendations he has already accepted from the state Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness, which delivered its final report to him yesterday.

The commission report includes a provocative string of proposals aimed at streamlining New York's 4,720 local government entities to improve service and cut property tax bills.

Among them:

Give New York's state education commissioner the power to force school district consolidations and restructuring.

Allow town boards to make their highway superintendents, tax receivers and town clerks appointed, rather than elected positions.

And require municipal employees to contribute toward the cost of their health insurance and possibly their pensions.

Not surprisingly, the proposals drew fire from local officials, union leaders and school superintendents. Some commission members - notably Sen. Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington) - went on record to oppose some of its more controversial recommendations.

But with gas in Albany costing $3.70 a gallon lately, and a tax levy that has risen some 53 percent over the last six years, the governor said this is a good time to look at the cost of local government.

"We are in an era that may be unparalleled," Paterson said. "... New Yorkers are voting with their feet."

The commission started work a year ago, charged by then- Gov. Eliot Spitzer with finding ways to streamline the welter of taxing jurisdictions. Spitzer's proposal followed Newsday stories on the lavish pay, benefits and perks given to commissioners of special districts.

The commission, chaired by former Lt. Gov. Stan Lundine, has called for consolidating some key government functions at the county or regional level, including industrial development agencies, property tax assessment and collection, emergency dispatch, civil service commissions and vital records.

It also would require local consideration of countywide management for fire protection services and an affirmative referendum to continue commissioner-run special districts other than fire and police districts.

But other proposals call for lifting rules that hamper streamlining efforts, noted executive director John Clarkson. Towns would be allowed to run their own fire departments, something now barred under state law. Counties would be allowed to share a jail, a health commissioner or a medical examiner.

The recommendations backed by Paterson include those easing the formation of cooperative health plans and highway shared services agreements, allowing shared public health boards and directors, and making it easier for citizens to petition for municipal consolidations and dissolutions.

Paterson's legislation alone would save Nassau residents millions, said County Comptroller Howard Weitzman, a commission member who has been pushing for the sanitation district consolidations.

The report was slammed by CSEA Local 1000, the municipal employees union, as "the same old scapegoating of public employees."

The state Conference of Mayors backed its measures to rein in health and benefit costs but opposed the consolidation and regionalization proposals - which were, in turn, praised by the Association of Counties yesterday.