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Politics & Government

East Hampton Village Looking to State for Spending Relief

The village board has asked the state legislature to ease up on spending mandates with regards to bids.

The Board passed a resolution last week asking the Governor Elect and State Legislature for relief from unfunded mandates that are, they say, forcing them to spend money unnecessarily.

It's been said that in 2011, Andrew Cuomo, who will be the New York Governor and New York State Legislature are considering imposing a property tax cap on annual growth.  In the resolution passed at a meeting on Friday, the village is proposing that if such cap is imposed, it must include mandate relief, or it could lead to "dramatic layoffs" of municipal employees.  According to the resolution, unfunded state mandates such as,  pension benefits, health insurance costs, and collective bargaining are what is driving high property taxes in New York.

Deputy Mayor of East Hampton Village, Barbara Borsack said that she feels that it all goes back to unfunded mandates. "I don't believe the state should be telling us how to run the village," she said.

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Village Administrator Larry Cantwell said under state laws the village is required to pay contractors New York State labor rates which are much higher than what local contractors pay for labor. "It is only an educated guess, but the village could save several hundreds of thousands of dollars each year if relieved of many NYS mandates," said Cantwell in an email on Monday.

Other municipalities are also joining forces.  New York State Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials released a report this month,  including a letter to New Yorker's titled "You Can't Cap What You Can't Control."  The letter informs New Yorker's of the possible property tax cap, and that if imposed, the conference said, it can only work if there is relief of some mandate control.  

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A recent example of how the village could have easily created a savings if there were no such labor rate mandate, Cantwell said, had to do with the re-shingling of two garage buildings. The village received bids from contractors, but instead of going with a contractor who bid $20,000, he said the village would have to pay twice the amount to a non-local contractor, because the state requires them to do so.

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