Mandate Relief Redesign Team

Today was my first meeting of the Governor’s Mandate Relief Redesign Team (Team), established by Executive Order 6.  This group of 30 will examine local government mandate relief through local consolidation, shared services among school districts.  The stakeholders around the table included organizations such as:

• NYS Association of Counties
• New York Conference of Mayors
• New York State Association of Towns
• New York State Department of Education
• New York State Council of School Superintendents
• New York State School Administrators Association
• New York State School Boards Association
• New York State United Teachers
• Civil Service Employees Association
• New York State Business Council
• Office of New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
• Upstate Building Trades Association
• Citizens Budget Commission
• and both Senators and Assembly Members from the Majority and Minority.

The Team will submit a first set of recommendations to the Governor by March 1, 2011 for consideration in the Fiscal Year 2011-12 budget process.  The Team will continue to review until the end of Fiscal Year 2011-12.

The League was invited to participate because of our wide membership and our credibility as a civic organization involved in many of the issues being discussed.   It was an interesting 2 hours, everyone around the table appeared to be interested in the final goal, which is to make NYS a more efficient and economical government.  Today the Team spent most of the time talking about pension reform but nothing concrete was decided.  This Team looks to be an active and interesting endeavor.  I will keep you posted as we move ahead.

To submit your mandate Relief Redesign Recommendations, please visit their website:  http://governor.ny.gov/mandaterelief.