Throughout the state, local municipalities are preparing and finalizing their budgets. As communities figure out how they are going to pay for services and keep property taxes from increasing, I hope our elected state officials remember that we must take serious action to provide unfunded mandate relief for our municipalities.

State unfunded mandates are programs and policies the state government imposes on our local municipalities, schools and other local entities without providing any aid to help pay for them. These mandates consume large amounts of the local tax levy, making it difficult for municipalities to pay for them.

The New York State Association of Counties has identified that just nine of the hundreds of mandates imposed in New York consume nearly 90 percent of the local tax levy. That is just absurd, and it’s not sustainable.

We want to accomplish so much for the people of this state. We want to lower the costs of local taxes, especially property taxes, but Albany is unwilling to address the looming issue of unfunded mandates.

Many of the programs, Medicaid, for example, have ballooned far beyond their intended purposes. New York has the most expensive program in the nation, 75 percent more than the national average. The mandated Medicaid program in our state is the Cadillac of programs, with numerous generous components that are not federally required.

I think it is important to provide services to those in need, but New York must review and analyze such programs and scale back the requirements. I support three bills (A.2703, A.3863, and A.6160) that would address New York’s addiction to unfunded mandates.

These bills address the problem by placing a moratorium on unfunded mandates from the legislature, creating a mandate relief design team to develop cost-saving initiatives for the legislature to act upon, and addressing portions of the law to allow mandate relief to occur.

I know mandate relief isn’t the most appealing of subjects, but considering how much they impact the financial stability of a community, the cost of property taxes, and the quality of services provided, Albany can no longer ignore this issue. I encourage my legislative colleagues to take this matter seriously.

I welcome your input on this or any other legislative matter. Please contact me by emailing me at blankenbushk@assembly.state.ny.us or by calling my office at 493-3909.