We are connected as citizens of the Capital Region by the variety of choices we make every day. Many of us live in one community and work in another. Most of us leave our home community at least once a week to shop, play, or visit in other communities of the region. Along the way, we use the region's roadways, pay sales tax to different counties, and rely on an invisible support system of services -- from business assistance to trash collection and public safety -- without a second thought.
We are all members of one regional economy as its producers or consumers. We benefit from each others' work, products, purchases and taxes.
Recognizing the common public interest in the future of this region, the New York State Legislature created the State Commission on the Capital Region in 1994 in an act sponsored by all of the Capital Region's members of the State Senate and Assembly. The Commission was created to study the delivery of local government services and ways for improving them. This mandate includes ways of increasing: efficiency, effectiveness, and the quality of services; public involvement in the governmental process; and/or responsiveness to the public through various types of regional approaches.
Cover Page, Table of Contents, Letter of Transmittal, List of Commission Members, List of Advisory Committee Members, and the Executive Summary
Challenging Times Call for New Responses, A Vision for the Future, and Regional Action Agenda
Section One: An Agenda For Economic Growth
Section Two: Property Taxes and Economic Competitiveness
Section Three: Addressing Barriers to Growth (Property Tax Burden and Electricity)
Section Four: Integrating Land Use, Economic Development, and Transportation Planning
Section Five: Other Transportation Issues
Section Six: Achieving More Efficient and Effective Public Administration
Section Seven: Improving and Consolidating Property Assessment Practices
Section Eight: Achieving Cooperative, Cost-Effective Solid Waste Management in the Capital Region
Section Nine: Working Together for Change in the Capital Region
Appendix A: Brief History of Cooperative Regional Efforts in the Capital Region
Appendix B: Work Plan and Research Plan
Appendix C: List of Recommendations
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