You can see from this article how little interest there is to consolidate any local governments… Albany wants to give us some more of our money back so locals can do just that but…. Nope not here, the local politicos and their little fiefdoms like it just the way it is. Big and Bloated, that should be New Yorks motto.

Erie, Niagara counties slow to seek state grants for shared services - The Buffalo News

Dollars earmarked for collaborations

New York State put $13.7 million up for grabs this year for local governments willing to work together and find creative ways to save taxpayers money.

Erie and Niagara counties, it turns out, won just $1 million of those grant dollars.

“Why aren’t there more grant recipients from Erie County? I’ve asked that same question,” said Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, chairman of the Assembly committee with jurisdiction over the Shared Municipal Services Incentive grants.

“Even though we have been a hotbed of discussion about municipal cooperation in this region, for whatever reason, Erie County hasn’t received as much of the SMSI resources as I’d like to see,” Hoyt said.

Hoyt said he plans to send a letter to area municipal government leaders publicizing the grant program, established during the state’s 2005-06 budget year.

Winning proposals involve two or more units of local government that cook up joint ideas for trimming costs and improving municipal efficiency through shared services, cooperative agreements, mergers, consolidation and even dissolution.

This year, 67 municipal partnership proposals across the state won money to do just that.

The grants are being used for everything from building new shared public works facilities to upgrades for aging water supply and distribution systems.

Individual grants this year ranged from $28,690 to $579,600.

One of the smaller grants, for $41,426, went to Niagara County’s Village of Youngstown, which is working with the Town of Porter to study the possibility of merging the village’s Department of Public Works and the town’s Highway Department.

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