Syracuse, NY - Onondaga County voters eager to cut the size of government will get their chance with a swipe of the pencil on Tuesday. A referendum on the election ballot asks voters if the county Legislature should be reduced from 19 to 17 members. The question has received little attention since legislators voted 16-1 Aug. 3 to put the...
Syracuse, NY - Onondaga County voters eager to cut the size of government will get their chance with a swipe of the pencil on Tuesday.
A referendum on the election ballot asks voters if the county Legislature should be reduced from 19 to 17 members.
The question has received little attention since legislators voted 16-1 Aug. 3 to put the issue to voters. But lawmakers say they expect the measure to pass, given the public’s desire to shrink to the size of government.
That’s is, of course, if voters notice the question on the county’s new scannable ballot. It appears on the side of the ballot opposite of where all the candidates for office are listed. So voters will have to flip the ballot over to see it.
Democratic elections Commissioner Edward Ryan said both sides of the ballot will be posted where voters entering polling stations can see them. Election workers have been instructed to tell each voter about the referendum question, he said.
The Legislature proposed the change to save money, but cutting the ranks of county lawmakers by just two is more a symbolic gesture than a real money saver.
County legislators, who work part time, are paid $25,591 a year. So the county will save just $51,182 by eliminating two of them. That’s exactly 0.005 percent of the $1.12 billion 2011 county budget approved by lawmakers last week.
“To some extent, it’s symbolic,” said Majority Leader Rich Lesniak, R-Lysander. “When we’re asking other departments to cut costs, we need to lead by example.”
If voters give the thumbs up on Tuesday, the Legislature would re-draw district lines next year to reflect the change. The reduction would take place Jan. 1, 2012.
Republicans hold a 12-7 majority in the Legislature, so they will have the greatest say in the re-drawing of district lines.
Legislator Thomas Buckel, D-Syracuse, wants to see the Legislature shrink a lot more. He proposed reducing it to nine members, but his proposal did not get a lot of support. He said counties across the country with populations similar to Onondaga County’s typically have just five to seven members.
Buckel, an attorney, said the size of Onondaga County’s legislature is a throwback to a time when county government did not have experts running each of its departments and relied on legislators themselves — or members of the Legislature’s predecessor, the Board of Supervisors — to address constituent complaints about service. Today, legislators more often refer such complaints to department heads.
Lesniak said eliminating 10 legislators might negate any cost savings because the remaining nine members would have to become full time county employees — and would likely raise their pay to reflect the change.
The Legislature has shrunk itself in the past, the last time in 2002 when it went from 24 to 19 members.
Contact Rick Moriarty at rmoriarty@syracuse.com or (315) 470-3148.