Rockland Have Your Say On Sharing Public Services To Save Money

NEW CITY, NY — Rockland residents are invited to weigh in on a plan to save taxpayer money by sharing services among towns, villages, school districts and fire districts. There will be three meetings in the next three weeks on the draft 2019 Rockland County Shared Services Plan.

The current draft of the plan would save participating towns, villages and districts — and therefore taxpayers — $3.7 million in 2020 and $8.3 million in 2021, if fully implemented by the participants.

“The purpose of this plan is to continue exploring ways to improve and consolidate services to save taxpayer dollars. It includes suggestions from many different municipalities and organizations and I am proud of the work we have done in developing these ideas,” said County Executive Ed Day.

Meetings will be held:

• 7 p.m., Monday, Nov. 18, Suffern Village Hall, 61 Washington Ave., Suffern, NY.
• 2 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 20, Blauvelt Library, 541 Western Highway S, Blauvelt, NY.
• 7 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 4, Haverstraw Library, 10 West Ramapo Road, Haverstraw, NY.

The draft 2019 plan includes 12 new projects and 10 projects continued from the 2018 plan.

The reason for the shared services plan is that New York State requires counties to convene panels to explore, draft and then submit such programs. Successful new shared service projects may then apply to the state for matching funds for any tax savings the panel members can demonstrate having achieved.

Highlights of the draft plan include: making record-keeping more efficient, sharing cost of animal control, sharing highway department equipment, shared recycling, information technology and justice reform.

The draft plan was submitted to the Rockland County Legislature on Nov. 1.

Panelists will vote on the 2019 plan Dec. 18, at the Rockland County Fire Training Center Auditorium, 35 Firemen’s Memorial Drive, Pomona, NY.

"The true goal of the Shared Services Initiative was to bring together these different municipalities and organizations to improve services for our residents while saving money," Day said. "Hearing the concerns of taxpayers loud and clear, we have built relationships and shared ideas that are already creating efficiencies and cost savings and we are not nearly finished."