Town of Berne
An Albany County highway consolidation plan that proponents had touted as possibly the first of its kind in the state appears to have collapsed under opposition from most of the Town Board. Berne Supervisor Kevin Crosier and county officials went public in August with their plan to fold Berne's Highway Department into the Albany County Department of Public Works.The merger would save money, they said, by eliminating inefficiencies such as town plow trucks driving miles of county roads to reach the streets they are responsible for cleaning.
Crosier proposed the consolidation as part of his 2007 budget. But the other board members opposed it, he said. The board proposed additional spending that the supervisor said translates into a 28 percent tax-rate increase over his initial budget.
Officials are scheduled to take up the spending plan again at a 6 p.m. meeting tonight.
It's a lesson in how hard change can be in a state whose municipal system Comptroller, Alan Hevesi, faulted it for being stuck in the 1700s in a recent report. The Berne situation has also drawn attention from other Albany County towns.
Coeymans and Rensselaerville both informally approached the county about various forms of shared highway services, said Kerri Battle, spokeswoman for County Executive Michael Breslin. Coeymans Supervisor Ronald Hotaling Jr. had his own consolidation controversy when opponents earlier this year unsuccessfully mobilized against a plan to consolidate the village of Ravena's tiny police force with the larger Town of Coeymans operation.
"They keep saying, 'If it's not broken, don't fix it,' " Crosier said of opposition to the highway merger. "Well, hiking people's taxes by 28 percent means it's desperately broken."
Under the plan rolled out in August, the seven town highway workers were to have become county employees. The merger would eliminate the elected town highway superintendent post.
This town of fewer than 3,000 people wouldn't have to build new salt- and fuel-storage facilities because the county has them. The county wouldn't have to build a new field office because the town has one.
The merger would have saved taxpayers $200,000 annually, Crosier said.