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State Continues To Push For Mergers In The Spirit Of Cost Savings, Efficiency

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is serious about pursuing local mergers and consolidation.

The governor has done more than pay lip service to the idea. He has put taxpayers’ money behind the idea, offering incentives to consolidate and the opportunity for counties leading the best consolidation plans to receive millions of state dollars to implement them. Most of local property tax bills, however, aren’t paid to town or village governments. Schools take the biggest bite out of taxpayers’ wallets. Knowing this, Cuomo should lend his weight during the next legislative session to a change in state law that would help make the possibility of school mergers more likely by pushing legislators to approve legislation introduced by state Sen. Catharine Young, R-Olean, that would allow for the consolidation or annexation of school districts by a majority of all qualified electors voting.

Current law requires a majority of voters in each district to approve a proposed consolidation, annexation or centralization. In 2010, Brocton overwhelmingly supported merging with Westfield 643 votes to 74, but Westfield rejected the merger by about 200 votes, 718 to 507. The fact that more people voted for the merger than voted against it didn’t matter. Seven years later, both districts stagger forward.

Both the New York State Commission on Needed Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness and the New York State Commission on Property Tax Relief released reports in 2008 that recommended school consolidations and mergers as economically beneficial for school districts and by extension the taxpayers. Both reports and the state Department of Education recognized mergers and consolidations as a means to provide greater opportunities to students, including advanced classes and specialized classrooms. Why shouldn’t the process be made easier. The benefits are likely even greater in Chautauqua County with its high number of small, rural school districts that struggle to provide advanced classes, electives and extra-curricular opportunities to students?

The monetary incentives have long been available for school mergers. The process, however, needs to be changed.

Young has introduced similar legislation during each of the past four legislative sessions, but has never made it out of the Senate’s Education Committee. If state lawmakers really want to encourage school mergers and consolidations rather than just talk about it, they will approve Young’s legislation.

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