Not no, but hell no.
That’s the answer to the question, “do you want to consolidate Onondaga County government?”
Do you want to take the city of Syracuse (incorporated in 1848, I believe) and erase it from the municipal map?
Would you like Stephanie Miner to be the last mayor of Syracuse?
Would you like this common council to be the last common council?
Would you like the proud badge of the city police department to be thrown in a drawer, never to be worn again?
Would you like taxpayers across the county to take up the expense of supporting the infrastructure and law enforcement expenses of the city of Syracuse?
Would you like to lose your local fire and police departments?
Would you like your local representation, which is essential to the neighborhoods of Syracuse and the towns and villages across the county, to be washed away and swept up into a 33-member constituent assembly?
Again, the answer is hell no.
We sure appreciate Andy Cuomo and Joanne Mahoney making this power grab, of course, but they would be the only winners in this scheme.
He could proudly say, “Look what I’ve done!”, and she could proudly say, “Look at all I rule over now!”…but you would be left saying, “Oh how I miss what used to be.”
The purpose of our government is not to be efficient; it is to protect our liberty.
And local government in particular exists so that very different attitudes and priorities, held by very different people in very different communities, can be represented.
“Metro-Gov” works great for government itself, but it does not work well for you.
So the final answer, once and for all, is not no but hell no.