Public forum offers details for county sharing ideas

Apr 01, 2015 at 12:23 am by Observer-Review


Public forum offers details for county sharing ideas ADVERTISEMENT

Public forum offers details for county sharing ideas

YATES, SCHUYLER COUNTIES--Area residents had a chance to hear the summary of a shared services study between Schuyler and Yates Counties Wednesday, March 25 at the legislative chambers in Yates County. A similar meeting was also held in Schuyler County, Tuesday, March 24. Representatives from the Center for Governmental Research (CGR) gave a presentation of their study for a crowd of more than 20 people in Yates. Many representatives from both Schuyler and Yates County were also in attendance, as CGR representatives Paul Bishop and Joe Stefko outlined the similarities between the counties. The CGR report is a result of a $50,000 grant the two counties utilized to look at potential cost savings opportunities between the two counties, considering items like sharing individual positions up to and including full consolidation.
Stefko said the counties were not only similar in size and population, but also in governmental expenditures and, in many cases, the services they provide to their residents. Bishop said in similar departments like highway, sheriff and social services, an employee of one county could be placed in the office of the other county and still perform the same general job without much interruption. However, he also added there were a few departments like the treasurer, human resources and community services that differed between the two counties.
Neither county indicated full consolidation was a short-term solution during the meeting, instead claiming consolidation would have to be worked toward and phased in over an extended period of time.
"When the steering committee was first formed, we agreed the likely implementation would be phased in nature," Schuyler County Legislative Chairman Dennis Fagan said. "[...] Hopefully over time it would become more transparent whether [a merger] would work."
Some residents expressed their concerns with the Yates tax rates increasing in the event of a full merger while the Schuyler tax rate decreased, but Fagan said this is primarily due to the fact Schuyler shares a portion of its sales tax revenue with the towns and villages, while Yates County does not.
While not viewing consolidation as an immediate practical option, the counties instead agreed to take the information provided by CGR back to the steering committee to discuss what other options for sharing are available. Bishop said the counties are not mandated to follow any of the suggestions for efficiencies listed in the report, adding it is now up to Yates and Schuyler to work together to decide what action they would like to take. Yates County Legislative Chairman Tim Dennis said the steering committee will meet again in the coming weeks to decide what opportunities they wanted to pursue next.

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