GREENE – A guest presented an informal informational presentation to the Village of Greene Board of Trustees and community members last evening, to shed some light on the plausibility and potential fiscal benefits of municipality consolidation.
With the focal point of the demonstration aimed at introducing both village officials and members of the community to the intricacies and brief overview of the consolidation process, the idea was pitched with little skepticism and several key points were addressed.
“New York State provides tremendous motivation for these grants in the form of citizens empowerment tax credits,” said Robin Webb. “This provides additional annual aid to re-organize a local government entity – or coterminous. That means that a village or town would consolidate and operate either as a village or a town under the consolidation.”
According to Webb, the financial incentive to municipalities is great; once consolidated tax levies are established, New York State will award the new jurisdiction 15 percent of the combined tax levy in perpetuity, meaning the newly reorganized village or town would receive 15 percent extra funding from the state every year.
“There is an incentive restriction of one million dollars annually, which prevents large cities from taking all of the money from the program,” Webb said.
Webb explained that of that 15 percent, 70 percent of that figure is required to be used for property tax relief for the village or town residents. The remaining 30 percent can be allocated to general fund appropriations.
NY State Governor Andrew Cuomo has said the state has far too many governments – more than 10,000 – and consolidation would save money and lower taxes in a state that has the highest property taxes in the nation.
In Cuomo’s 2014 State of the State address in January of this year, Cuomo announced another incentive – a two-year tax freeze on property taxes. Homeowners would get a two percent rebate the first year, and in the second year, would receive an additional two percent credit if their municipality submits a plan to consolidate or share services.
"It's time to stop making excuses, and it’s time to start making progress,” Cuomo said.
“If this is the way that Greene wants to go, I would volunteer my services for the duration of this planning process,” Webb said. “I've lived in the area for five years, and I have experience with successful consolidation – and it's not difficult, and it can save taxpayers and municipalities in the long run.”
Webb, who has nearly 30 years in local government experience, said that the funding needed to pay for the consolidation processes; namely feasibility studies, assessments, and legal fees, would be matched 50 percent up to $50,000 per entity. Webb estimates that the actual cost to a small village such as Greene would be less than $10,000.
Webb also said that the entire process could take less than a year to carry out once two municipalities agree to move forward with consolidation process.
“One thing that immediately comes to mind is that we have a Village Electric Department; a community department with good rates, and we certainly would not want to jeopardize that,” said village attorney Robert Larkin.
Although New York guarantees the 15 percent incentive, there is no way to determine the amount of savings to the taxpayers ahead of a feasibility study.