WPCNR GUEST EDITORIAL. By George Latimer. County Legislator, 7th District. March 24, 2004:  After extensive debate during our 2004 County Budget season, many County Legislators decried the proliferation of unfunded mandates from the State and Federal governments: Medicaid, Services to Children with Special Needs, State Retirement Benefits, etc. So two weeks later, the State Legislature now considers the next big new mandate ahead - HAVA - Help America Vote Act. Here we go again!

 HAVA purports to avoid the 2000 Florida debate by mandating electronic voting machines.  HAVA seeks the laudable goal of making polling places handicapped-accessible.  But who is going to pick up the bulk of the tab?  The County property taxpayers, that's who.

New Voting Machines

 Westchester would need to buy 1,200 new electronic voting machines, at $6,000 per machine.  Total cost: $7.2 million.  Federal support expected - at best, $4 million.  State support expect - unsure, maybe zero.  County budget impact: $3 million at least.

Centralized Storage of Machines

 NY State Board of Elections is expected to require that the County Board of Elections take over costs and administration for all elections.  Good news for city, town and village budgets, which will drop such costs - but an incalculable expense on County taxes.  This takeover - unwanted by the County - means creation of a new central storage facility for electronic machines (which may require air conditioning and temperature control), and added transportation costs to ferry these machines to and from polling places.  No funding yet planned to offset these mandated County costs.

Polling Place Accessibility

 The costs of bringing every polling place into ADA - compliance is hard to estimate.  In many locations, a new polling place will be required; capital projects to correct these deficiencies in many places could trigger a massive expense.  No funding yet planned to offset these potential costs to the County.

Legislation has been passed by Congress to implement HAVA with hard deadlines - but minimal money ($200 million spread all across New York State).  So get ready; when the 2005 County budget comes around, remember the seeds were sown for a new round of mandated expenses under the umbrella of the much bally-hooed "Help America Vote Act". 

 It is one more example of decisions forced on local governments during the course of the year, which voters only appreciate when the budget comes out at year's end.

George Latimer

County Legislator, 7th District