A report on government consolidation in Onondaga County will be released early next year by a Consensus, a commission looking at the modernization of local government. One potential recommendation for saving substantial tax dollars could be the creation of a county-wide municipal government. Whenever Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney starts talking government consolidation, it generally begins with a story about snow and the 19 towns, 15 villages, and city, county and state snowplows that clear the streets after a snowstorm. "I mean we literally drive down the street and lift up our plows when we drive into each other’s jurisdiction," Mahoney said. She said a metropolitan government could change all that by offering all the services that are now performed by several layers of governments. Mahoney admitted the devil though is in the details when you talk about rolling dozens of local governments into one. "There would have to be representation from the city from the county and
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