Highway Report Addresses Governor's Call for Efficient Local Government

ALBANY, NY (01/06/2011)(readMedia)-- In his State of the State speech yesterday, Governor Cuomo emphasized, "we must continue to rightsize our more than 10,500 local governments through consolidations, mergers and shared services." However, a report released last week by the New York State Association of Town Superintendents of Highways, Inc. (NYSAOTSOH) titled Delivering Highway Services at the Town Level in New York State: Home Rule Accountability for Effective Highway Maintenance on Neighborhood Roads and Streets challenged some of the Governor's solutions.

The report was independently prepared and sent to leaders in both the Executive and Legislative branches. In response to Governor Cuomo's calls to consolidate local governments for assumed cost savings, NYSAOTSOH President Roger Wolfe of the Town of Yates, Orleans County declared, "[Our] members have worked closely with Village, City and County governments to achieve cost savings through cooperation and shared services. Doing more with less is nothing new for local governments. Many of our service agreements go back decades with more costs savings per mile than State operations. Our constituents know every dollar they pay in Town taxes stays in their community, directly providing the services they need – and every other November they tell us how well we are doing!"

Among many observations, the report demonstrated that local municipalities maintain more miles of infrastructure then every other level of government combined including the State. Outside New York City, eight out of ten New Yorkers reside in a town. Additionally, it was noted that Town roads are engineered very differently than County and State roads requiring different equipment and expertise. Town departments also provide a much broader scope of services including: refuse pick up, park maintenance and repair, oversight of the local landfill or transfer station and storm drain repairs.

"The Governor is correct about rightsizing government, but the solution is the other way around," Wolfe commented. "Recent events in New York City demonstrate just how important our services are which many take for granted such as snow removal and trash pick-up. At no other New York State level of government is an essential service to the taxpayers so close to the officials elected to provide it. Larger bureaucracies with many layers between the taxpayer and the unelected public official accountable for the service is not the direction our constituents, and yours, want government to move. Some in Albany have played up the "many benefits" of mergers and consolidations of local government services, but the many case studies have failed to show the appreciable savings. Fewer governments usually just mean bigger governments."

President Wolfe noted, unfortunately, that local taxpayers don't get the same return on the investment they pay in State gas taxes. Local drivers continue to get short changed by the State in the distribution of the gas tax. Drivers on New York's local roads pay over $1.5 billion a year to the State in gas taxes, which amounts to 48 percent of all gas tax revenues collected. Last year the State returned less than 12 percent of these funds for local road maintenance. During the same period the State directed nearly twice as much, 21 percent of total gas tax revenues to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

The report concluded that consolidation of local highway departments would likely sacrifice service to the community. Among the many conclusions and recommendations made by the report, were the following:

• In many areas the makeup of town roads is unique among all levels of municipal owners with many un-paved road miles, less stable roadway foundations, less robust drainage facilities and fewer safety features such as wider shoulders and better road alignment.

• Town Maintenance Facilities are uniquely positioned to provide reasonable response to weather driven needs in times of flooding, wind storms, and snow and ice events.

• Town Highway equipment is "right sized" in consideration of the types of facilities and the operating experience that comes with decades of experience in the locale.

• The collaborations and camaraderie that exists among and between Superintendents and their counterparts at the Village, City, County and State level should be taken to a new level to support shared services.

• Highway Departments should agree to more centralized "back office" functions, such as the purchasing of road maintenance materials, supplies, and equipment.

• Centralized specialized engineering services and centralized ownership of infrequently used, expensive or specialized equipment should be undertaken to support multiple municipalities as demand and budgets allow.

• Snow and ice removal optimization between government service providers based on an "all plows down" approach should be examined where long routes are problematic.

Wolfe concluded, "Our Association stands ready to assist the Governor and highway departments across the State in the ongoing effort to provide timely service in the most economical way possible."

NYSAOTSOH is the State's largest transportation association representing the transportation needs for New York's 932 towns as well as many other local municipalities. In 2008, NYSAOTSOH released a "20-Year Needs Assessment of Local Jurisdiction Highways and Bridges in New York State." This report provided an estimate of the funding required over the next 20 years for local roads and bridge infrastructure. The study found that local transportation infrastructure is deteriorating and funding for repair is woefully inadequate. At that time NYSAOTSOH called for approximately $1.2 billion annually in additional State funding to meet the challenge. Since that time, a confirming study was released by the State Comptroller's Office.