Group helping state municipalities

Municipalities, schools to get strategic assistance

PAYGo NY is trying to help counties and schools consolidate services to fight New York's fiscal crisis.

ALBANY >> Local government officials announced a new push Tuesday to help municipalities and school districts cope with New York’s worsening financial problems.

“Governor Cuomo has called upon local governments to put our fiscal houses in order, and local officials are doing that work on the ground throughout the state in their localities and with their Associations,” said Ulster County Ex- ecutive Mike Hein, the leader of the new group called PAYGo NY. “By bringing people and strategies together, PAYGo NY will develop real solutions, from the ground up, and identify state and federal barriers to change. Ultimately, this will allow local governments to both protect taxpayers and continue to deliver high quality services.”

As an example, he cited a successful program in Kingston that will put a community college in a former elementary school, located right next to a hospital and the lo- cal high school. “We’re creating an educational corridor in the heart of the city of Kingston,” he said.

“The status quo simply hasn’t worked, I think that everyone can agree upon that,” Hein added. “This is about finding new ways of interacting.”

“It’s important to highlight the fact there’s not a limitless pool of money in Albany that is going to solve every local problem and we understand that. And because of that we are taking action.”

The Association of Towns, the Conference of Mayors, the Association of Counties and the NYS School Boards Association are all involved in the program. They plan to hold a first meeting next month on Long Island, then regional forums upstate.

They said county governments in particular are facing myriad problems caused by the recession and weak economic recovery and the continuing rise in the cost of delivering vital government services.

The goals of PAYGo NY include

FROM PAGE 3 reconfiguring government services so they can continue under the 2 percent tax cap that is one of Cuomo’s signature achievements, and putting an end to new mandates passed down by Albany to municipalities. The group also aims to help local governments face the new reality that additional state aid will not be forthcoming as it has been in the past.

“We’ve got some of the highest taxes in the nation,” School Boards Association chief lobbyist Dave Little said. “Other states that have taxed their way out of the recession had the luxury of being able to institute new taxes. In New York we have virtually every tax that every other state uses and we tax them at some of the highest rates.”

“We have a stagnant economy,” he added. “We have a declining school enrollment that is reflective of a declining and stagnant statewide residency … We literally cannot afford to do what we’ve always done with the money that we are going to have in the foreseeable future.”

Possible solutions include consolidating all health insurance programs for police and fire workers, and having school districts and municipalities merge services and departments.

“There’s a lot of great ideas out there,” said Albany Mayor Gerald Jennings. “I think it really makes a lot of sense to formalize them.”