Spitzer's consolidation proposal a noble idea, but it won't work
DAN MEYER Political Columnist
When it comes to talk concerning consolidation, every few years we hear of a couple of area school districts beginning to talk about some type of merger or incorporation of shared services.

Talks about trying to cease the overlapping of public services in an effort to decrease the devastating impact of the constantly escalating tax burdens we are dealing with here in Western New York always sound refreshing.

But let's make no mistake that when we hear about the talks of consolidation, it's just that - talk.

And, as the old saying goes, talk is cheap, especially when it comes to consolidation of the various taxing jurisdictions and special districts in this area.

Consolidation? Great idea, but it's time to face the fact that the elected officials and appointed administrators of the districts supposedly considering some sort of consolidation are simply wasting their breath.

That's right. As long as the present mindset of protecting our own turf remains one of the most important factors in deciding if any sort of consolidation or shared services should occur, it - meaning consolidation of any form - will never happen.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer recently formed a new commission that has a fancy title and promises to introduce potential ways to save New York taxpayers significant amounts of money, but remaining very skeptical about what kind of impact Spitzer's group will have on our local towns, villages and schools seems to be a pretty safe bet.

Why? Plain and simple, we all like our own turf?

That's right. When it comes to the talk about consolidating school districts, it's quite easy to say it will never happen because of something as simple as baseball.

That's right. You can say our nation's pastime is partly to blame as to why area school districts will never actually take the necessary steps needed to consolidate.

What you have is parents wanting their children to play on the varsity baseball team. By having the number of school districts that exist today, 31 at last count here in Western New York, the student body sizes are small, meaning more students have a chance to be a varsity athlete and a star on the diamond when having fewer districts might not allow for as many of our children to earn a varsity letter playing baseball or any other sport.

Here are some simple and easy to understand bullet point facts about how burdensome local governments are here in Erie County:

+ In addition to the previously mentioned 31 school districts, Erie County has local government representation in 25 towns, 18 villages and three cities.

+ For every 1,000 county residents, there is one local governmental body.

+ There is a local government per square mile in Erie County. That's right, those 1,010 local governments are operating in 1,044.7 square miles of land.

Despite having these numbers smack us right between the eyes, we don't think Spitzer's Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness will be able to do much in terms of cutting through the 4,200 taxing jurisdictions and 6,900 special districts that exist throughout the state.

When the formation of the new commission was announced, Spitzer was quoted in several publications, saying the many different layers of government "have led to a significant degree of overlap in public services, which has had a devastating effect on tax burdens. Something has to be done."

Yes, something has to be done. But nothing will. As stated before, we like our own turf. Check that, we love our own turf.

We love it so much we are willing to use the first $4 million or so raised in local school taxes to pay the salaries and benefits of 31 superintendents, whose main focus is to follow the same mandates established by the state and the federal governments 31 times.

Spitzer's proposal is a noble idea. But when it's all said and done, the "something" Spitzer talks about won't amount to much, and the governor will simply be spitting in the wind.

(Daniel Meyer is a columnist for the Weekly Independent Newspapers of Western New York. Opinions are those of the author.)