Promoting taxpayer savings through shared municipal services on a recent stop in Westchester County, state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said the state”™s “fiscal storm” is also “the best time to seize upon opportunities.”
Municipalities across the state could save an estimated $765 million through shared services, DiNapoli said at a press conference at the Cortlandt Town Hall to announce the release of a research report from the comptroller”™s office on potential and already implemented shared services initiatives around the state. Those savings could be realized if local governments shared administrative office and information technology functions and operating equipment and joined in health insurance cooperatives and cooperative fuel agreements, according to the report.
Of those services, pooling central business office functions by school districts and by local governments would save up to $580 million, the comptroller”™s office calculated. DiNapoli said merging those “back office” functions often are easier to achieve than other consolidations and hold the most promise.
New York has 3,175 local governments, including counties, cities, towns, villages, school districts and fire districts, the comptroller”™s Division of Local Government and School Accountability reported. Added to those are approximately 1,110 special purpose taxing entities such as public authorities, regional planning boards and soil and water conservation districts.
“There”™s no doubt if we were creating government today, we would not draw the maps we have in some of our communities” with their multiple overlapping taxing authorities, DiNapoli said. “But there is legacy, history,” a powerful obstacle to eliminating or consolidating local governments.
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As communities in New York have found, consolidation is “a very contentious process,” he said. Sharing services is another option less likely to stir controversy over the loss of municipal identity. “There”™s so much we can do without the outright battle of consolidation,” he said.
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Joining the comptroller in Cortlandt, state Secretary of State Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez said her department has given out $40 million in grants for more than 240 shared-service projects to improve local government efficiency. Local governments receiving grants have projected a savings of $350 million from those projects, she said.
Cortes-Vazquez said the comptroller”™s shared services report “champions something that we know works. We know that consolidation is an ultimate goal but shared services is a precursor to that ”¦ This is a successful precursor.”
The comptroller”™s researchers found that revenue generated by local governments in providing a service to another municipality increased by nearly 31 percent over a five-year period, from $674 million in 2002 to $881 million in 2007.
Of the 181 shared municipal activities reported statewide in 2008, youth activities accounted for more than one-third. Other joint services included water and sewer, refuse and garbage, planning and zoning, library and transportation.
Savings often come when towns and villages merge their services or when counties assume services formerly provided by towns, villages and cities, the report found.
DiNapoli said the state faces a $4.1 billion budget deficit at the close of the current fiscal year on March 31, 2010 if legislators do no cost-cutting before then. The comptroller said a more immediate concern is the state”™s projected $1.4 billion cash-flow shortage this month.
“There aren”™t any pretty options in terms of how to deal with this,” he said. “It is serious. It is real. It”™s not going to correct itself. Any hope that there”™s going to be a sudden turnaround in state revenues, I think is an ill-advised way of looking at things.”
