Attorney general has consolidation plan

ALBANY, N.Y. (WIVB) - New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has come up with a plan to cut the size of government in order to save taxpayer dollars.

Cuomo said, "It's time to look in the mirror and say how do we do the business of New York better."

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo stood up Thursday for consolidating and downsizing.

He says the more than ten thousand local governments, school districts, authorities and special districts in New York weigh down our ability to do business in a cost effective way.

Cuomo said,: "If you're looking for an estimate, 5-22% of property taxes can be saved with consolidation or dissolution."))

Cuomo says right now people have to wade through a maze of rules and regulations to make any progress.

So he's proposing changing the law to make it much easier.

Cuomo said, "The current law makes it virtually impossible to do these consolidations or dissolutions."

Town of Lancaster Supervisor Bob Giza says while this may help some groups, it may not be good for others.

Giza said, "There's a lot of red tape in government and I'm one of the guys who thinks we should cut it when possible, but there's a lot of checks and balances which are good also."

Political activist Kevin Gaughan has been calling for this for years.

Gaughan said, "I've been plowing this reform road for over a decade and it's a great help to have a politician come onboard."

He says the rest of the state can learn from what's been done in western New York.

Gaughan said, "We're the first ones who are doing it, we're going to continue to lead the way, we're grateful for all of these politicians coming onboard but no matter how successful the attorney general is in getting Albany to do something, I've proven that we can do it here, citizen by citizen, town by town, village by village."