Five years ago, the state began passing the buck to counties for court-ordered inpatient mental health services for criminal defendants deemed incompetent to stand trial.

For Saratoga County and its taxpayers, that’s translated to 1.2 million bucks - just this month.

Now spread that out over New York’s 62 counties every year, and you have a significant state mandate shoved onto local taxpayers, without any state financial relief, without any obligation for the criminal defendant to contribute to the expense of his or her own care, and without any obligation by the state to seek ways to reduce that expense.

New York state needs to........

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