More than 100 dormant local authorities and industrial development agencies will vanish following legislation approved today by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

“Since taking office, my administration has worked to make government more efficient and accountable to taxpayers, including doing more with less and finding ways to reduce the costs facing localities,” Governor Cuomo said. “Given that these authorities and agencies no longer serve the public interest, it only makes sense to do away with them for good. I thank the bill sponsors for their work on these two bills.”

The authorities and agenices being disbanded don’t have any outstanding debt or other financial obligations, so the state isn’t exactly saving money.

But the shadow governments that is the public authorities system has caused the public bureaucracy to balloon over the last half century.

Authorities and other similar type agencies are set up so that government can borrow for certain projects or programs outside of the normal bonding process.

This led to an explosion of such entities and many continue to float around in a legal sense, but serve no practical purpose.

The bills signed today take effect in 60 days.

 

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