By JIMMY LAWTON

OGDENSBURG – A proposal included in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget could cost the city $1.7 million in state aid.

The plan included in the governor’s budget would require St. Lawrence County’s legislature to create a shared services plan with all 32 towns and villages in order to get aid that the municipalities would normally receive without strings attached.

The funding is known as Aid and Incentive for Municipalities and it’s designed to reduce the property tax burden.

A Major Hit

Countywide municipalities could stand to lose more than $3 million in AIM funding. St. Lawrence County’s population centers in Ogdensburg, Massena, Potsdam, Canton and Gouverneur would be hardest hit by the loss of AIM funding, but all towns and villages receive a chunk of the money.

Under the plan the county would need to work with all of the municipalities to create a shared services plan. That plan would then need to be ratified in a public vote. If the plan is defeated, a plan would need to be resubmitted and another vote would need to be held at the county’s expense.

City Manager Sarah Purdy said losing that funding would be crippling to the city.

“If Ogdensburg lost that aid, I’d say last one out turn off the lights please,” she said. “$1.7 million would surpass the constitutional cap that we could legally raise taxes by.”

Purdy said that while Ogdensburg supports sharing services with the county in any way that it can, the governor’s plan is fundamentally flawed.

“It’s insulting,” she said. “Certainly we are proponents of doing things together but we don’t like being dictated by the governor in order to receive aid we already rely on and expect,” she said.

Cutting Unfunded Mandates

Purdy said that if the governor is truly looking to reduce the property tax burden, the most of effective way to do so would be eliminating costly unfunded mandates.

Three of the many mandates that impose large tax burdens are the 25 percent Medicaid contribution, the state’s mandated but unfunded salary for district attorneys and indigent defense costs that are covered by county taxes.

New York puts more burden on county governments than most states do, according to Purdy. She says Medicaid is typically funded by state taxes, and that’s also true of indigent defense.

“Counties are required to pay district attorneys at the same rate as county judges, but judges are state employees and their salaries are funded by the state,” she said.

Purdy said St. Lawrence County’s district attorney has had performance issues but received a large pay hike when the state mandated the salary change.

“In the private sector you’d lose your job, but the state is requiring a pay raise and its putting that burden on the county,” she said.

“If there could be some acknowledgement at the state level that the reason property taxes are so high is due to what the state does in regulation and mandates that would be a good place to start,” she said.

Purdy also questioned the legality of Cuomo’s plan. She said the county plan may be in direct contrast with the city’s charter.

Opposition Mounting

Purdy isn’t alone in her skepticism of the governor’s proposal.

Assemblywoman Addie Jenne, D-Theresa, is against linking aid that municipalities rely on to what amounts to another unfunded mandate.

Jenne said this is yet another example of Cuomo trying to beat local governments into consolidation whether its feasible or not.

“The approach that’s been taken in years past is to slap your hands and the club keeps getting bigger each year. You’d think it would dawn on someone that if you have to keep getting a bigger stick to hit someone with each year that there is something fundamentally wrong with your approach,” she said.

Jenne liked the proposal to the governor’s “famous competitions” which have failed to bring real economic development to the North Country.

“The funding never gets there. We don’t have the high price consultants that are required to play the governor’s grant games,” she said.

The New York Conference of Mayors is also concerned about adding a new mandate to municipalities, when mandates are largely the biggest burden on property taxes.

“Mayors are shocked that Gov. Cuomo would hold municipal budgets and taxpayers hostage by linking current levels of AIM funding to state legislative approval of his ill-conceived mandate on each county to hold a referendum on a county-designed municipal consolidation plan. Such a linkage, if allowed to stand, minimizes the power of the state legislature and diminishes the value of representative municipal government,” NYCOM Executive Director Peter A. Baynes said.

Baynes continued by saying the aid vital to keeping property taxes down.

“AIM funding is New York State’s only program of municipal property tax relief and is a key component of every municipal budget. AIM needs to be strengthened, not threatened with extinction. The types of shared services included in his proposal – joint purchasing, shared equipment and facilities, energy/insurance purchasing cooperatives – are prevalent in cities, villages and towns throughout New York. Let’s not forget that state mandates are the primary cause of New York’s property tax problem, and a new mandate will only make matters worse.”