MONTICELLO, NY — The Sullivan County Shared Services Panel announced on November 8 a plan that promotes the sharing of services between the county and the 15 towns and five villages located within it.

The plan calls for service sharing in four areas: purchasing, training, records storage and tax collection.

Under the plan, local officials responsible for purchasing will be trained to purchase goods and services at lower rates often available to the county and state.

Regarding training, the county will provide state-mandated online training for local officials, which would save each municipality up to $5,000 per year.

The county will also offer municipalities reduced-cost storage of electronic records.

By offering tax-collection services to willing partners, the county could save municipalities up to $20,000 each.

The programs are not mandatory, but if they are enacted any county expense would be reimbursed by the state.

“I’ve been working closely with various town and village leaders to develop a plan which meets the shared services mandate given by the state, and I’m gratified this plan has earned their support,” deputy county manager John Liddle said. “Now it is [the] towns’ opportunity to review and discuss these proposed methods to reduce expenditures in key areas.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo created the Countywide Shared Services Property Tax Savings Plan two years ago to try to identify areas in which municipalities could save money by sharing services.