The following quote is from an Newsday article by Deborah Morris that was published August 25, 2025. You can read the entire piece here.

Richard Murdocco, an adjunct professor of planning for Stony Brook University’s public policy graduate program, said investing in infrastructure is part of the responsibility of government and sometimes a conduit to deliver municipal service.

“You can’t deliver animal shelter services without an animal shelter structure,” Murdocco said. “Suburban governments since the 1960s have grown in their scope in the types of services they provide.”

He said the added state mandate for shelters to be licensed is another consideration.

“The state changes its standards and that’s an unfunded mandate,” he said. “So when the state changes, the locality needs to comply with state law and that involves increasing costs.”