Government Efficiency Recommendations Bearing Fruit Exec. Dir. States

ALBANY, NY (11/19/2008)(readMedia)-- Recommendations issued last April by the Commission on Local Efficiency & Competitiveness (LGEC) are already resulting in tax-saving improvements in several localities across the state reports John Clarkson, the Commission's executive director in an interview released today by the Empire Page.

The LGEC recommendations resulted in legislation according to Clarkson that allowed for "restructuring of the state's shared services and consolidation grant program, new consolidation incentives for municipalities and for functional consolidation of highway services, and Wicks reform."

The estimated savings from the Commission's 73 recommendations could exceed $1 billion Clarkson stated. "That [figure] doesn't include an estimate from implementing regional solutions for county jails, but just because we don't have a number doesn't mean there aren't major savings there," Clarkson said.

Unlike in the past today there is a high degree of interest from local government officials in demonstration grants and other assistance being offered as a result of the Commission's recommendations. However, Clarkson points out that further progress requires both enabling legislation in order for certain solutions to be adopted and "a sustained executive-level focus on local efficiency at the state level, using existing state agency resources to support local initiatives, promote cost-savings and to follow-through on Commission recommendations."

The complete interview is now live on the Improving New York section of the Empire Page.

The Improving New York section of the Empire Page explores solutions to New York's government-related problems through interviews with political leaders, program managers, academics and other experts. The next interview will dig deeper into recently-reported results of the Secretary of State's Shared Services program.

The Empire Page is published by PoliticalNewsToday.com, LLC, which seeks to provide information and opinion on the key issues of the day through websites that aggregate news and opinion and provide useful content for people active in government and politics. The partnership consists of Peter G. Pollak, who is the majority shareholder and actively manages the company, Schwartz-Heslin Group and Wynantskill Capital.