The Mandate: A plaintiff can sue any municipality so long as the statutory notice requirements are complied with. Oftentimes plaintiffs rush to comply with the notice requirements and, in so doing, commence litigation against the wrong municipality. Despite this wrongful commencement, municipalities are still obligated to expend money and resources defending the lawsuit.

The Mandate: Local municipalities are required by state law to retain and manage an immeasurable number of various documents, which requires a significant expenditure of time and money by the municipalities. In 1989, the Local Government Management Improvement Fund was created to assist the municipalities in complying with the mandate and to improve local government records management. The money is collected by County Clerks on every deed and mortgage filed in their offices by local citizens, which is then distributed back to local governments through a competitive grants program.

The Mandate: General Municipal Law § 208-a authorizes cities, villages, towns, and county and district police departments to provide for school crossing guards to control vehicular traffic in order to protect children going to and from school. Because schools do not have any power to designate, authorize or appoint school crossing guards, the New York State Office of the State Comptroller has opined that "[a] school district may neither employ school crossing guards nor contribute to the expense borne by a [municipality] which employs them." See Opns St Comp, 1981 No. 81-31; see also 1959 N.Y. Op. Atty. Gen. No. 228.

The Mandate: As if the economic challenges facing New York’s communities weren’t already great enough, the “Great Recession” has further strained local economies that were already under tremendous pressure.  The decline in jobs and population, particularly in upstate New York, over the past four decades has left many communities with depressed housing markets.  This has resulted in a high rate of rental, vacant, and abandoned properties that depress surrounding property values, require a disproportionate focus of municipal resources, and generally inhibit sound economic and community growth.  The responsibility of dealing with the negative effects of vacant and abandoned properties falls primarily to the local governments in which those properties are located.  Unfortunately, State law does not adequately allow municipalities to promptly deal with abandoned property.