A positive gesture for taxpayers and an example for other governments to follow – The Daily Gazette

The prospect of sharing services to save money and make government more efficient was barely out of their mouths, and they are already running the idea.
And that’s a good thing for the taxpayers of Fulton County, Gloversville and Johnstown.
The Fulton County Board of Directors voted on Monday to share a new microcomputer specialist with the two cities, a move that will allow them to collectively manage the 9/11 dispatch software and record-keeping applications used by the county sheriff’s department and respective towns. police forces.
Rather than having three separate people to do the job, or handing over the task to existing staff or risking not doing the job at all due to the prohibitive cost, the three governments decided to spend $ 123,000 to make sure that the job was too expensive. ‘one person does the work for all three of them. The county will pay 50% of the cost, while the two cities will share the remaining half equally.
In an op-ed last Sunday, we pushed other communities to relaunch their shared services initiatives, as the state offers new financial incentives for governments to work together on efforts like this that improve the quality of life. efficiency and reduce costs.
Often governments duplicate services such as road works, personnel and human resources, and administrative tasks that could be shared. By working together, they can often reduce the number of employees needed and lower the overall cost of performing that particular function.
In the case of the IT specialist, the initiative is probably eligible for some reimbursement from the state.
But county officials fear the investment of time and money in preparing for the application is not worth it.
If the state is serious about encouraging small municipalities, counties and school districts to apply for funding and move forward with shared services, it will need to streamline and simplify the application process to encourage applications.
In small governments, even a small saving of a dollar can make a big difference in a budget, and many small initiatives in many small communities can mean large sums of money statewide. The state should not reserve its funding for large shared service initiatives.
If the reimbursement claim process is too arduous and expensive, many won’t even bother to go ahead with a shared service plan.
And then you come back to governments that act independently and don’t even try to work together.
How does this help taxpayers?
But even without a refund from the state, there are many initiatives worth pursuing, as we see in Fulton County.
Fulton County, Gloversville and Johnstown officials are to be commended for stepping forward with their joint IT specialist and for seizing the opportunity and setting an example for other communities.
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Categories: Editorial, Opinion