By Stephen J. Bronner
They also question how the bill, which was sponsored by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, will save taxpayers money.
?If the district would be dissolved, the people would be subject to the whims of the local government,? said Nat Swergold, general counsel of Sanitation District 1, which includes the Five Towns. ?The town would have to be responsible. Immediately the question becomes, will the town treat this area the district covers like the rest of the town? Will they provide different services?? Swergold specifically questioned whether the town would continue backdoor garbage pickup.
The state Senate approved the New York Government Reorganization and Citizen Empowerment Act on June 3 by a vote of 46 to 16. The bill, if signed into law by Governor Paterson, will allow petitioners to consolidate local municipalities and services by, in effect, dissolving them. These services would then be absorbed into town or county governments, which proponents argue would reduce the cost of services and result in lower property taxes. But local officials argue that the bill won't save taxpayers a significant amount of money and that the services provided by the town or county can not match those of existing organizations.
?Our village has always prided itself on running an extremely efficient local government, and most importantly, we are a very responsive government to both the micro and macro needs of our residents,? said Hewlett Harbor Mayor Mark Weiss, who questioned the bill's promise of reduced taxes. ?I just do not believe that the town or county government can in good conscience promise to demonstrate the same kind of responsiveness and efficiency that we've been able to achieve.?
Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach), who voted against the bill, agreed with Weiss's thoughts on local municipalities. ?Nassau County doesn?t understand the locals? needs of communities,? said Weisenberg, who added that ?90 percent? of his constituents were against the legislation. ?I believe in consolidation, but we also have to put the people's interests first.?
Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), who may reclaim his title of Senate majority leader, voted against the bill. Scott Reif, a spokesman for Skelos, said more information was needed to evaluate the savings for taxpayers. ?There's value for certain districts, but ... we wanted fire districts to be exempted for the work they do,? Reif said. ?There are unanswered questions on how much it'd save.?
The Five Towns area has six fire districts ? Atlantic Beach, Hewlett Bay, Inwood, Lawrence North, Meadowmere Park and Woodmere ? one sanitary district, Sanitation District 1, and one sewer district, the Greater Atlantic Beach Water Reclamation District. There are also seven village governments: Atlantic Beach, Cedarhurst, Hewlett Bay Park, Hewlett Harbor, Hewlett Neck, Lawrence and Woodsburgh. There are 10,521 local governments in the state of New York, according to the office of Sen. Malcolm Smith, whose position of majority leader is now in question, which ?forces? many New Yorkers ?to pay for overlapping services.?
?I commend the state Senate for taking action on such a critical issue and giving local communities the ability to reduce government overhead and cut property taxes,? Cuomo said. ?Taxpayers may soon be truly empowered to create long overdue efficiencies in local governments and special districts across our state.?
The New York Government Reorganization and Citizen Empowerment Act would give people the power to dissolve what proponents call unneeded municipalities. The consolidation process begins when 10 percent of registered voters or 5,000 people, whichever number is smaller, sign a petition to hold a referendum. Under the old law, 33 percent of registered voters were needed to hold a referendum. A sour point for many Five Towns officials is that Cuomo?s law allows people from outside of a village to start a petition for dissolution of that village.
Counties will also regain the ability to dissolve local municipalities if the bill is signed into law. County officials can start a petition to hold a referendum on the dissolution of villages that would be put to a vote by the entire county, not just the residents of the village that would be dissolved.
If a referendum is approved by a majority of voters, public hearings and further referendums would be required before the consolidation. If citizens do not approve of the consolidation plan, they can petition to block it within 45 days.
Still, officials said they want hard proof that cutting these groups will reduce taxes. ?I had a couple of board members go to a meeting last week, and they could not show us in black and white how they will save taxpayers money,? Inwood Fire District Commissioner James Pearsall said. ?Until they can show us how it saves money, all the fire districts are against it.?
Both Weiss and Weisenberg stressed the importance of local groups, and questioned the bill's premise to save money. ?To me this is not a step forward in having more effective government,? Weisenberg said. ?This is just a means that the public can save money. You have to think of the consequences.?
Comments about this story? SBronner@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 210.
