Goal: Ensure that our government(s) work to make the City and region competitive

SYRACUSE 20/20 has spent the past several years examining the issues surrounding government consolidation.  SYRACUSE 20/20 feels strongly that communities must modernize local governments to yield the greatest efficiencies and to maximize productivity and the return on tax dollars.  More proficient local government can project the image of communities that are willing to change to not only save money but to better protect their assets. 

SYRACUSE 20/20 approach to government modernization is focused on two key strategies: service consolidation as well as structural reform.  First, SYRACUSE 20/20 supports the effort undertaken by the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce to encourage the current County Executive, Mayor, towns and villages to pursue a functional consolidation study applying for funding from the State’s Shared Services program.  If funded, this study will review all the functional operations of the City, County and potentially other local governments to assess possible areas for service consolidation.  We believe that consolidations that can achieve efficiencies and maintain the value of the service (measured by quality, quantity, timeliness of service and cost) must be pursued by local governments.    

Second, SYRACUSE 20/20 believes there is a need for significant reforms to our existing government structures.  We believe we need to explore structural changes that could increase the ability of the County to shape the growth in our community as a whole.  There are three primary reasons to consider structural changes: 

·        Increase our economic competitiveness;

·        Enhance our visibility as a region; and

·         Increase efficiencies and effectiveness.

The specifics of what government modernization would look like locally are still being explored with the larger community.  SYRACUSE 20/20 and our community partners are currently in the process of holding community conversations throughout the County to gauge the public’s interest in reforming government structures (LINK to front webpage).  It is our intent to mobilize public opinion with regard to the need for structural changes and work in a collaborative way to advance a proposal for modernizing our local government structures to best position ourselves for the future.