Legislators Want To See Mandate Relief

The Rockland County Legislature unanimously passed a resolution at Tuesday’s meeting urging the state’s Mandate Relief Council to submit a package of mandate relief proposals to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state legislature so the legislature can vote on it during its 2012 session.

A variety of programs and services are mandated by the state, such as pension programs and Medicaid, but aren’t funded, leaving a burden on county governments.

“We are painfully aware of the problem with the existing scenario with counties increasingly having trouble coming up with ways to pay for such services,” Legislator Ed Day, who introduced the legislation, said in a released statement. “We have had to cut our own Rockland-based programs, such as highways, law enforcement and senior services, in order to fund these mandates. The state must get past lip service and immediately address mandates such as Medicaid, where local share tax dollars are nearly seven times the second largest state’s contribution rate. That is an unsustainable model that will cripple us sooner rather than later.”

The governor’s Mandate Relief Council is an 11-member executive and legislative council formed in January of this year that was asked to review and advance proposals intended to help relieve counties of some of the burden from mandates. The council has met multiple times this year, but various counties throughout the state have not been pleased with the results thus far. Day also called for May 15 to be “May Day for Mandate Relief Day,” which many other counties around the state did as well.

“The goal of ‘May Day for Mandate Relief’ is to get thousands of residents discussing these state unfunded mandates, to demonstrate that the decisions made in Albany have a direct impact on the local tax levies and community services and to encourage the state legislature to act on the council’s proposals before they break for the summer in June,” Day said in the statement. “It has been nearly a year and a half of talk; it is passed the time for action.”