On June 3, the New York legislature passed A8501, which streamlines procedures for one particular type of local initiative. The bill deals with initiatives to abolish a local government, or initiatives to consolidate two or more local governments. Existing law requires that such an initiative petition include the signatures of 33% of the registered voters. The bill would change that to 10% of the registered voters, or 500 voters, whichever is less. For very small entities (those with fewer than 500 voters), the petition would be 20%. For a countywide petition, the requirement would be 25% of the registered voters, or 15,000 signatures, whichever is less. Under the bill, circulators for such petitions may live anywhere in the state (current law requires them to live in the jurisdiction that is being affected). See this article. This seems to be the only election law bill likely to pass in this year’s session, which ends in less than three weeks.

New York has 10,521 local government units. Most of them are special districts. Experts on public administration generally agree that New York state wastes tax dollars because it has too many local governments and special districts.