Picente Announces Municipal Government Consolidation Challenge

County Executive Anthony J. Picente Jr. today announced the Oneida County Consolidation Challenge, an incentive program to improve the efficiencies of municipal government that the county will double the first-year’s savings of.

“Long-term, real consolidation has always been a goal of my administration,” Picente said. “We know it works. It creates effective and efficient services at a cheaper cost, saving the taxpayers real dollars. So I am challenging local municipalities to take a hard look at what they do and how they do it, and make fiscally-sound choices for their taxpayers. County government stands ready to help them accomplish these goals.”

The program is aimed at creating true government consolidation and will allow local municipalities to create more effective services, increase efficiencies and save taxpayer money long term. The first-year annual savings will be doubled by the county in a one-time incentive.

The application, which can be found here, is a straightforward single-page application, outlining a municipality’s consolidation objectives. The incentive will only be paid upon completion of the consolidation.

The Oneida County Planning Department will administer the application and incentive program, working with municipalities throughout the process to identify projects, costs, savings, timeframes, benefits and barriers to and from consolidation.

“County Executive Picente knows there is a better way forward for municipalities to deliver services,” Commissioner of Planning James Genovese said. “We will assist local municipalities with the use of data collection, community participation and implementation to complete their application, consolidation and receive their incentive.”

The Consolidation Challenge was previously announced by Picente in his 2022 State of the County Address.