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Attorney General promoting government consolidation

By bud prevost

AG Cuomo was in Rochester today on his tour of NY, to promote and educate people about government consolidation in our great state. I added the link for the web site. I say this is timely, given talk of town and city of Batavia merging. http://www.reformnygov.com/

Howard B. Owens

Here's <a href="http://www.13wham.com/news/local/story/10-521-Governments-Too-Many-for-… report from 13WHAM on Cuomo's visit</a>.

Apparently he mentioned Batavia.

And there's this:

Cuomo on taxes: "Why is the cost so high? Because we have too much government in the state…it's literally chasing businesses from the state…literally chasing young people from the state!"

Which got me thinking -- no, the reason New York gets a bad rap with business begins and ends in Albany. It's taxes, regulations and a broken state government.

While consolidating Batavia may make some sense, the fact that there is a town of Batavia and a city of Batavia isn't keeping any businesses away. Cuomo complains about 10,000 government agencies in NY, but no business is staying away because Bethany has its own town board or Pavilion its own school district. They're staying away because of only one government and that government is based in Albany.

So the next logical thought: Albany's push for consolidation is all just a smoke screen so we don't talk about Albany politicians and career bureaucrats. It's nothing but an opiate.

If Batavia consolidation makes any sense, it makes sense on its own merits, not on anything any smooth words spoken by an Albany politician.

Jul 2, 2009, 9:02pm Permalink
Andrew Erbell

That's pretty funny, coming from a career politician, who's the son of a career politician. I'd bet the house he's got his eye on following in daddy's footsteps and being Governor himself one day.

Jul 2, 2009, 9:32pm Permalink

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