Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the legislature approved a plan in the state budget to encourage local governments and schools to merge and share services over the next few years, in an attempt to lower property taxes. But according to a study by school administrators, attempts at school district mergers in recent years have failed, partly because the public doesn’t want them. Cuomo and the legislature recently enacted a multi-year plan that would reward taxpayers in local governments and schools with a tax freeze, if the governments and schools agree to share services and even merge two or more school districts together. Cuomo’s been giving a series of speeches about the state budget across New York, touting the plan and making the case for consolidation. “It is a plethora of bureaucracy,” Cuomo told an audience of business leaders in New York City recently. The governor maintains that even the two percent per year property tax cap enacted in 2011 has not been enough. “There’s so many of them
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