Written on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 2:19pm by Alan Bedenko | 4 Comments

Considering county life without the County Government

That’s the tagline for rethinkingwestchestergov.com, which is advocating for the dissolution of Westchester County government using Massachusetts and Connecticut as case studies.

For anyone who’s been reading this blog for more than 2 years, that should sound vaguely familiar. (Any blog post invoking Chuck Swanick’s stupid sweater is win. Here’s another 2005 post explaining how Mass. did it. Ignore the shitty quality of writing.)

I liked these choice quotes:

On the day that the counties ended their near 300 year existence, it is doubtful if many persons other than public officials and political figures were aware of the occasion. For the most part, the passing of Connecticut’s county governments occurred quietly and unnoticed by most people.” (pg 2-3)

“criticisms of conduct ranging from secretiveness with which county operations are sometimes carried out to actual acts of malfeasance.” (pg 10)

James Bryce in the American Commonwealth in 1888: “Counties are the dark continent of American politics.”

There was strong re sistance from some politicians because it “provided a lucrative source of patronage to whichever political party controlled the General Assembly.”

Abraham Rubicoff, the Democratic nominee for Governor in 1954, described the counties as a “governmental fifth wheel that is neither efficient nor representative” and existed “for purely political purposes of power, prestige and patronage.” (pg 118)

HT Lohud

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4 Comments

  1. Facts Plz says:
    November 18, 2008 at 3:18 pm

    With only approximately 10% of the County Budget being discretionary, it certainly begs the question as to the need for 15 legislators and County government. What is there to really do at budget time other than horse trade for pet projects to help with the re election effort every two years.

    Things that make sense:

    Abolish Erie County Government (really all Counties).

    Restrict retirement benefits to a calculation tied only to base salary without OT for all State, local, muni employees.

    Establish one School District per Town or City.

    Abolish all unfunded state mandates.

    Restructure State Legislature to One Senator per County.

    Require Performance Based Budgeting for State and Public Authorities.

  2. Matt Bova says:
    November 19, 2008 at 6:49 am

    Nice post, I agree that the county is completely unnecessarily and only exists to have a social services department. There’s no reason they couldn’t be state offices.

    We’ve also got to get rid of villages, as like counties, they are just a total waste of money.

  3. Brian says:
    November 19, 2008 at 9:28 am

    all local governments are service providers for the state – that is the underpinnings of our federal style of governmenance. the argument against “state mandates” is dumb because the only reason that these governments exist is because the state allows them to. (unlike state governments, who exist wholly seperate from the united states)
    the same argument to get rid of county government can be made about the city/town governments, as well as village of government.
    i would prefer to see the taxing power of city/town and village governments stripped and make the only local taxing entity be the county. i would like to see local governments exist, but only in a zoning, land-use and permit functions rather than providing direct services to the residents.

  4. Ivan says:
    November 19, 2008 at 9:49 am

    Cities should be distinct and independent of county governments so that city mayors report directly to the governor not some county executive.

 

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