The Null Device

Here's one solution to the state mandates mess: What about having a do-over ...

Imagine if our state constitution had in it the following explosive device: “Every 25 years all laws enacted by the state shall be null and void. Based on the accumulated wisdom of the previous 25 years, and changed social and economic circumstances, the state shall enact a new set of laws.”

This desperate fantasy occurred to me as I attempted to cut the Gordian Knot of “state mandates,” which The Post-Standard addressed on July 4 . Most of us know the state requires the counties to fund many programs for which the state provides little or no revenue. This practice threatens either to bankrupt the counties or force them to raise local property taxes to pay for Albany’s profligate ways.

Governors, including Andrew Cuomo, promise to reform this tangled and deceptive mess, but they don’t. Indeed, in his latest self-congratulatory message to constituents, Cuomo’s claims about mandate relief are pitiful, resting pretty much on establishing a new “ Mandate Relief Redesign Team ” to study the problem to death.

The very phrase “mandate relief” has become a synonym for the dysfunctional state-county relationship and for the behavior of an out-of-control state legislature that never saw a new program it didn’t like — but didn’t want to fund through a state tax hike.

Synonyms, however, don’t force change. A better understanding of the situation might. So I took the plunge (on your behalf) and read “Reforming Mandates, Reducing Costs,” a desperate cry of the heart submitted to the Governor a few months ago by the New York State Association of Counties. I don’t recommend it as bedtime reading, unless you like fiscal nightmares.

Within it are 239 recommendations divided into nine areas of mandated costs that eat up 90 percent of all county property taxes. These nine areas are the familiar (Medicaid, Pensions), and the less familiar (Preschool Education, Indigent Defense).

The recommendations are mighty interesting, although the report should have been written with the wit and righteous indignation of a Jon Stewart, so ripe is some of the material for “The Daily Show.” Here are three examples of how Albany mandates the spending of our local tax money:

* Medicaid places no cap on the length of expensive treatment for alcohol and substance abuse. Most health insurance plans do impose caps.

* Counties must contract with a bus company to transport pre-school special education students even though school districts already have buses that transport children. (The report notes dryly that one county pays $350 per day for a special bus, and because it is a rural county, there is sometimes one special ed pre-school student on the bus. Do the math.) * The vast majority of the costs of probation are now borne by the counties. When the State passed Leandra’s Law, it required that first-time drunk drivers install an ignition interlock device, and that these persons be monitored by the probation system. No money was provided for this, yet the potential pool of persons now “on probation” increased dramatically.

OUTBOUND Sci-Fi Comics Anthology: The Null Device by David Marshall

Agent K is in trouble. She’s trapped behind enemy lines and is in desperate need of assistance. Reality is being rewritten and Agent K is necessary to set things straight. Somewhere near the end of the world, her superior the Director, weighs his options and selects the one remaining agents with the skills to complete the mission: Agent D. Too bad he's been fired. Join artist/writer David Marshall as he tries to save reality with the Null Device. And don’t forget your thumb drive.

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