Linda, I don't believe that one can simply turn public authorities into depts of state government due to the constitutional limit on the number of executive departments. Moreover, the recent history suggests that doing so would make a bad situation worse. NY used to have a Temporary Commission on Lobbying. The "good govt" groups, eg NYPIRG, Common Cause, the League of Women Vultures, shills for the Democratic party all, whined and bitched so Client 9 changed it from an independent body to a part of the dept of State which he controlled. Of course when Client 9 came under scrutiny, his new agency COPI, launched an "investigation" of its own. The head of COPI used this as a vehicle to report to Client 9 on the status of investigations against him. But that's old news. The reason for public authorities is to avoid the constitutional requirements regarding the state incurring additional debt eg, public referendum. Also, I oppose IDA's because they distort the economics of development. That said, the Amherst IDA is one of the most, if not the most effective IDA's in the state. Compared to it the ECIDA is a chump. Don't believe it? Look at the state comptrollers annual review of IDA's for the last few decades. Let's save taxpayer millions and eliminate county government.