The saying all politics is local is particularly true as municipal leaders dissect Gov. David Paterson’s State of the State Address and his call for making local government more efficient.
In delivering his first State of the State Address to a packed Assembly Chamber at the Capitol in Albany on Wednesday, Jan. 7, the governor did not mince words concerning the financial problems that have now reached global proportions.
`So why not get right to the point, the state of our state is perilous,` Paterson said in front of a joint session of lawmakers. `This is not a time for fear, this is a time for action, this is a time for courage, and this is a time for hope.`
A handful of themes in the speech caught the ears of local officials in particular, including those here in Albany County, such as property taxes, state mandates and local government.
`We have to lower the cost of doing business in New York state, property taxes are too high, and we need a cap,` Paterson said to a roaring standing ovation. `Our state mandates are too cumbersome our local governments are too expensive, and we have to find ways to make them more efficient.`
Although Paterson didn’t elaborate on the details of specific solutions, he laid out a laundry list of problems that plague the state, ranging from high unemployment and low consumer spending to spiraling health-care costs and a crashing stock market.
Albany County Executive Michael Breslin, D-Delmar, said he was pleased to hear Paterson addressing local issues and said he has been a longtime advocate of government consolidation and increased efficiency.
`I though he gave an excellent presentation, and is aware of the huge challenges that face us,` Breslin said of the speech. `On the county level he is aware of the property tax situation.`
Breslin said he was also glad to hear Paterson’s initiatives on health care and energy. Albany County is currently involved in several cost-saving consolidation efforts such as a countywide health insurance consortium and a storm water management consortium, said Breslin, adding that he is also looking at a possible countywide property tax assessment consortium.
The county executive wasn’t without concern though.
`I am concerned there are some reimbursements that we may not get in the future that will make our services more expensive,` he said. `We’ll see how the budget plays out.`
In Bethlehem and Guilderland, the town supervisors both listened to the State of the State with interest.
`One of the things that I’m concerned about is the drum beat for a tax cap,` Bethlehem Supervisor Jack Cunningham said of the speech. `We [towns] don’t have any other means to raise revenues, like taxing sugared sodas.`
Cunningham said he was `all for efficiency` but was skeptical state government would have the answers.
`I can’t imagine that the state of New York can come up with a more efficient solution before the local municipalities,` he said.
Pointing out that the county initiatives mentioned by Breslin were `bottom up` concepts, Cunningham said a tax cap could potentially affect essential `direct` services to local residents.
`A percentage cap is not necessarily a good thing,` he added, stating that a 4 percent raise of a school or county tax is much more money than a 4 percent raise of a local town tax.
Next door in Guilderland, there was a similar skepticism about the efficiency issue.
`I think that when you look at efficiency, you’ll find that local governments are the most efficient,` said Guilderland Supervisor Ken Runion. `As far as spending and controlling cost, we get burdened by the state.`
Runion said he suspected Paterson was referring to the multiple layers of local government that cause the most waste, such as town, village and county services that overlap and could be consolidated to cut spending.
State mandates require funding that the municipalities often do not have time to budget for, Runion said, citing retirement funds, storm water management and election costs as burdensome mandates.
`I don’t think we’re different from the other Capital Region municipalities I’ve spoken to,` Runion said.
The state’s only Independence Party assemblyman, Tim Gordon, I-Bethlehem, said he was happy with a number of initiatives mentioned by Paterson, such as the `45-by-15` clean energy program. The program would set a goal for the state to meet 45 percent of its energy consumption through renewable energy by 2015.
However, Gordon said, some proposed would have to be reviewed.
`While some spending cuts in even the most sensitive areas are clearly needed to deal with the multi-billion-dollar budget deficit, some of the governor’s proposals are troubling,` Gordon said. `We need to take a close look at the education funding cuts so we don’t jeopardize our children’s futures or shift property taxes that would increase the burden on working families.`
The governor already released his proposed $121 billion budget five weeks before it was due, which is what governors traditionally discuss during the State of the State Address. Other points of the governor’s address included a Healthy Food/Healthy Communities Initiative, along with a sugared soda tax; a commitment to complete infrastructure projects like the Tappan Zee Bridge; a higher education loan program; and the continuation of an Upstate Revitalization Fund.
Still, as thousands of state workers protested outside in the cold on the capitol steps, Paterson warned in his speech that lean times are ahead and the burden would have to be shared.
`The pillars of Wall Street are crumbling,` he said of the financial institution that delivers one-fifth of New York’s total revenue. `If we can’t spend more, we have to spend more efficiently.`
` Reporter Dan Sabbatino contributed to this report“