While a great deal of attention was paid this week to Gov. Eliot Spitzer's decision to push for the recognition of same sex marriages and his failure to get a deal on campaign finance reform, what seems to have been missed is his naming of a commission to look at local government efficiency.

It may be because his Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness may have the potential to generate real savings for the state's property taxpayers; but it also has the potential to result in nothing.

New York has a plethora of special districts for fire units, libraries, sewer, water and other entities. These special districts are on top of the cities, counties, towns and villages that exist within the Empire State. They all add to the bottom line cost to property taxpayers when they write their checks for their taxes.

While it is easy to criticize some of the overlap as being just plain unnecessary or caused by bloated bureaucracies, some of it is the result of either poorly written regulations or those that are outdated and haven't been eliminated or streamlined from years past that put layer upon layer on the backs of local taxpayers. Cutting some of this duplication in effort and taxation can save taxpayers large amounts of money.

While groups, such as the New York Conference of Mayors, are behind Spitzer's venture, what is unknown is whether any real savings can be effectuated. In the end, to make local governments more efficient and competitive (and it is not clear what that “competitiveness” means in this case), it will require some entities to either dissolve or merge into others. That means overcoming the greatest obstacle to most efforts at creating good government: turf.

Spitzer touts that the expected work of the committee will result in a reduced burden on taxpayers. Taxpayers have heard that before, especially by his predecessor. George E. Pataki came into office in 1995 with a fiscally conservative agenda to reduce the costs of government to taxpayers - in the end his efforts resulted in minimal change on this front.

No matter what good ideas the commission comes up with, it will require Spitzer to use valuable political capital to effectuate change. Consolidating and streamlining such structures, with their built-in bureaucracies will not be easy. What prevents localities such as Auburn and Cayuga County from achieving consolidation on a local scale are magnified statewide.

What may be the biggest disappointment in his naming of the commission is that its scope will not include one area where economies of scale should be looked at - school districts. New York has more than 700 school districts spread across 62 counties and they account for more than half of what New York's property owners shell out annually. It looks that “efficiency” is being looked at, but omitting half the area of concern.

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com