July 2017
The following report constitutes the initial draft plan required by Part BBB of Chapter 59 of the State Laws of 2017, known as the “County-wide Shared Services Initiative.”Under the law, every county must convene a Shared Services Panel (hereinafter Panel) to develop a Shared Services and Taxpayer Savings Plan (For a full summary of the law’s requirements under the law, see Appendix C).
Over the past two and a half months, the team assembled by Albany County has been working tirelessly to gather and analyze ideas from all the county’s local government chief executives to include in this draft County-Wide Shared Services Property Tax Savings Plan. The state’s process provided an extremely tight timeframe within which to conduct a comprehensive audit and review of potential avenues for shared services and taxpayer savings. Two factors, however, made the task easier: the cooperation of all the stakeholders that participated in the process; and earlier collaborative efforts undertaken by the municipalities within Albany County over the past several years. These two factors eased the constraints of time allotted under this process.
Albany County Executive Daniel P. McCoy headed this effort. As required by state law, he convened the Panel, made up of the chief executives of the county’s cities, towns, villages, and school districts. The County Executive brought in the Rockefeller Institute of Government to help facilitate the process. The Rockefeller Institute has decades of experience and expertise in this area. For assistance the Rockefeller Institute called upon another expert group in this area, the Benjamin Center at SUNY New Paltz. Together we immediately began our work.
We would be remiss if we did not mention the extraordinary effort and assistance provided by County Executive Dan McCoy’s staff under the leadership of Deputy County Executive Philip Calderone, including Michael McLaughlin, George Penn, Matthew Cannon, and Mary Rozak.
The County Executive’s Office specified that our approach to this task had to build from the bottom-up, and that every community had to be heard. We believe that an inclusive, bottom-up process is reflected in the draft plan below.
The Rockefeller Institute of Government/Benjamin Center team began the process in mid-May, prior to formally coming on board. In all, the team members spoke individually to each chief executive (and also staff members, in many cases) from every town, village, city, and school district in the county, conducted in-depth research of the county and local municipality finances, and held special forums to discuss cost savings and efficiency topics. We consulted with subject matter experts in local finance, health care, insurance, and other local government issues. In addition, as required by law, we sent every collective bargaining unit in the county, local municipality, and school a summary of activities and ideas.
