The Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness, formed to make recommendations to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of local government, issued its report and among the commission's recommendations was school district restructuring.

The commission, a 15-member panel that includes Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman and New York State Senator Craig Johnson, recommends giving the New York State Commissioner of Education discretionary authority to order consolidation of school districts based on reviews triggered by objective standards, including but not limited to size in pupils and geography, declining enrollment, limited educational programs, ability to achieve fiscal savings and high tax burden. Consolidation of school districts would require a public hearing in the area affected. It should be noted that both Weitzman and Johnson were opposed to this recommendation.

As a possible incentive to encourage districts to consolidate would be state aid as the commission suggested a reevaluation of the current formula for reorganization incentive aid.

The commission also made a recommendation with respect to collective bargaining agreements negotiated between school districts and employee unions.

According to the commission's report, nearly 700 school districts statewide each negotiate collective bargaining agreements separately and many are under-prepared for the task of negotiating complex labor agreements. "This multiplicity of negotiations is also expensive and results in very different salary scales and benefits even in neighboring districts," the report stated.

For example, according a report to the governor and legislature entitled "New York - The State of Learning" by the State Education Department, the median teacher salary in Mineola for the 2004-2005 school year was $85,979 while in the Garden City School District, it was $79,030 and in the Herricks School District, it was $75,539.

The committee proposes providing a regional collective bargaining contract negotiated by BOCES, to which school districts could opt in. These regional contracts would be phased in as current contracts expire and would initially apply only to new hires with existing employees "grandfathered" for some term, according to the committee's recommendation.

The commission also recommended that school districts could jointly provide transportation for students crossing district lines to reduce the cost of transportation expenses.

Another possible cost-saving measure proposed by the commission was requiring all local government and school district employees to contribute, at a minimum, 10 percent (for individual coverage) and 25 percent (for dependent coverage) toward the cost of health insurance.

When it comes to commissioner-run special districts other than fire and police districts, the commission recommended having a referendum on keeping the special districts. If the referendum fails, the responsibility for maintaining the district would fall to the town the district is in.

The commission also recommended eliminating compensation, benefits and perquisites for special district commissioners. Johnson made a motion to amend the recommendation so that each special district commissioner would be allowed up to a $1,000 annual stipend. However, that motion was rejected.

It should be noted that if you live within the borders of the Village of Mineola, you are not served by any special districts as fire service, garbage service and water service all falls within the jurisdiction of the village.

Weitzman was pleased that the commission included proposals to end salaries, benefits and pensions for all special district commissioners and possibly placing commissioner-run sanitation districts under town management.

"As our studies over the last three years have shown, these special taxing district reforms will translate into lower government spending and tax relief for Nassau residents. I am very optimistic that these reforms will get the support they need from our legislators because we all want to save taxpayer money," he said.

However, Senator Johnson was not so pleased with the commission's recommendation. In a letter Johnson sent to the commission's chairman Stan Lundine, the senator expressed concern over what he believes are flaws in the commission's recommendations.

"There is almost no analysis of cost savings on any of the proposed consolidation initiatives. I have maintained since before the creation of this commission that no consolidation should take place without the taxpayers being made aware of how much they will save versus what loss in quality of services they will experience; in essence, there must be a cost-benefit analysis prior to moving forward," he wrote.