MONTICELLO – Governor Andrew Cuomo signed landmark legislation on Thursday to empower New Yorkers to control the cost of local government by requiring counties to assemble local governments and find efficiencies for real, recurring taxpayer savings.
Sullivan County is taking note. At about the same time the governor was
signing the measure, County Manager Josh Potosek reported on what he thinks
they have to do. That was during Thursday’s County Legislature
Government Services Committee meeting.
Potosek holds the de facto title, under the new law, as chairman of the Shared Services Panel for Sullivan County. Required members are the six village mayors and 15 town supervisors.
They have until August to come up with a plan.
“It appears to be a mandatory process we have to go through,” Potosek said. “There’s not anything in the law that says if you don’t do this there will be ramifications on the back side.”
The first meeting will be Monday, May 15, at 6 p.m. in the county legislature chamber.
A tentative plan must be presented to the county legislature by August 1. The legislature can then make suggestions.
Three public hearings would then be held, by September 15.
“Think a lot of things we’ve talked about are going to be some back office things, shared purchasing,” Potosek said. In other words, no big changes from what they may already be doing, on their own.
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