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Remote court appearances, lower road standards, bigger election districts urged by Sen. Ritchie's mandate panel

Posted 12/13/11

Remote video court appearances, larger election districts, and easing maintenance standards for little-used roads are among the recommendations of a panel examining state mandates on local …

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Remote court appearances, lower road standards, bigger election districts urged by Sen. Ritchie's mandate panel

Posted

Remote video court appearances, larger election districts, and easing maintenance standards for little-used roads are among the recommendations of a panel examining state mandates on local governments.

State Sen. Patty Ritchie's Local Mandate Relief Working Group has come up with 17 recommendations for reviewing, revising, scaling back or repealing measures to save taxpayers money.

“For years, Albany enacted costly mandates and created an increasingly heavy burden on counties, schools and local governments—and, most importantly, local taxpayers,” Ritchie said. “But with governments at every level facing tough times—and taxpayers tightening their belts as well—we need to find ways to deliver government services more efficiently and cut costs."

Among other things, Ritchie's group recommends:

• Election districts: The panel recommends increasing the maximum size of election districts to cut down on administrative costs;

• Dog licenses: The panel recommends a change in the way that towns remit payment to the state for dog licenses, to be later reimbursed;

• Local roads: The panel wants to preserve state funding for certain rural roads, and create a new, less costly maintenance standard for local roads that are rarely used;

• “Ropes” rule: The panel called for modifying a requirement for costly safety harnesses that are rarely used by rural fire companies;

• Duplicate reports: The panel cited an example of duplicate reporting by towns and villages that is costly and time-consuming;

• Excessive regulation: The panel wants a review of overly strict state rules governing the type of forks and plates that are to be used in county-run meal programs;

• Electronic appearances: The panel recommends expanding the use of video for court appearances to cut down on transportation expenses;

• Public audits: The panel wants to modify the requirements for outside audits of smaller agencies, to lower costs of compliance.

In addition to its specific recommendations for savings, the group also gave its support to several bills already introduced, including some measures sponsored by Senator Ritchie, such as bills to require prompt payment to counties of state debts, and to relieve crowding in local jails by requiring the state to remove its prisoners from local lock-ups faster.

Ritchie’s bipartisan working group comprises leaders from county and local governments and school districts from her district, across Oswego, Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties. The group was charged with gathering ideas from local communities and their own experiences on ways to cut regulation and save money.

A complete copy of the report is available on Sen. Ritchie’s website, www.ritchie.nysenate.gov.