"As costs went up, the town had not made gradual increases in taxes to offset them, and had used savings instead."What an outrageous thing for the Observer-Dispatch to suggest that "gradual increases" in taxes would have been appropriate.
With all the new construction taxable properties in New Hartford have increased. New Hartford now is believed to have the greatest amount of assessed valuation of any municipality in the region . . . believed to be even bigger than the City of Utica (but with 1/3 of Utica's population).
With assessed valuation significantly increasing while the population holds steady TAX RATES SHOULD BE GOING DOWN, NOT UP.
The New Hartford Police Department would buy one less new car, a savings of $23,000.Big deal. But . . .
Police Chief Raymond Philo said he would fight to bring the police car back into the budget.While public safety is a primary function of government, Chief Philo is one of the biggest reasons why spending in New Hartford is out of control. When he appeared at a Town Board meeting a few months back to push for a new Town Courthouse, he commented that New Hartford should have a courthouse that "reflects the Town's affluence."
“You don’t want to diminish public safety in any community,” Philo said. “It’s the basis for quality of life and economic development. You don’t want to diminish it.”
The entire Town Board and several employees and other officials reflect Chief Philo's arrogance ... not only on spending, but on other issues as well. Town government has been operated to benefit those who are "connected" and not the public at large. The "proof is in the pudding."
The public will welcome an Audit by the State Comptroller's office. . . Hopefully it will lead to an Investigation by the State Attorney General's office.
7 comments:
Yes, the mystery of New Hartford is how development has not resulted in the lowering of taxes. The answer to the mystery, which I guess means the mystery is solved, is three fold. First,tax breaks have been given to the extent that developement does not pay for itself, let alone contribute to the overall tax burden. There is no reason whatsoever to encourage certain development, commercial and industrial, if tax relief is to be granted. Why? It matters little to the New Hartford taxpayer where the job is located within the region.Why create the job location if the benefit to the taxpayers of that location is not there? Let a neighboring entity do it if they want to be that dumb. Two, both in New Hartford and all of goverment, public service union contracts have built in annual increases that far exceed inflation and private sector rates. In understanding this one must calculate benefits and add those benefits to salaries. This is something the OD never does and that people do not grasp. Someone working for New Hartford, Utica, Oneida County and up receives a salary plus benefits. The governemnt benefits tend to exceed those of the private sector. The cost for these benefits grows with the annual salary increase. The expense of government will never fall or even stabilize if the cost of labor is not brought under control. The third answer is mismanagement by both elected officials and administrators. One follows the other. The mismanagement results for a number of reasons too lengthly to discuss here. But,at the root of the reasons is politics. And, at the rooot of distructive and myopic politics is the voter. We have created our own mess!Until we wake up to that and its implications solutions will not be found and change not forthcoming.
What different quality of life and economic development does this town of New Hartford have that Marcy, Deerfield, and Trenton do not have? I have been an advocate for the Manager type of government in the past. Elected Town officials should be the liaison between the constituents and the manager. If you had a business with about a $15,000,000 budget and 100 employees, would you find a CEO or CFO to work for $17,000. Those jobs should be for ceremonial and ribbon cutting events. Everyone blames prior administrators, but most of the present have been entrenched in some fashion for many, many administrations. If they need to make some real hard decisions, make them valid. I do not believe there were any fireworks on 09 anyway. Unrealistic budgets, false revenue expectations and especially the unanimous rubber stamp board budget approvals are just plain wrong.
You never hear a peep about any consolidation or mergers. Not even a lets look into it message from anyone. You can't dance around this anymore. Real big consolidations, not the printer/copy machine sharing type. I think if someone even suggests something would get some backing even if you know it might not work. But no effort by anyone ever.
Town of Marcy, property tax REDUCTION. AGAIN.
I love the "affluent" attitude in New Hartford. You'd think they'd have enough money to have traveled to places that really do have affluence and realize what they really need is some humility.
Eroding your tax base with "Big Box" development is NOT the way to go.
One of the reasons Marcy can operate as it does is the revenue the town recieves from the Walmart distribution center. Is this not a, " Big Box" development? Big box development only erodes the tax base if you undertax it. My guess is that New Hartford and agencies such as the OCIDA and the EDGE gave away the store( pun intentded).
RE: Chief Philo is one of the biggest reasons why spending in New Hartford is out of control. When he appeared at a Town Board meeting a few months back to push for a new Town Courthouse, he commented that New Hartford should have a courthouse that "reflects the Town's affluence."
Strike: Did you mispell afflulence when you meant flatulence?
We know it smells to high heaven in the Town of New Hartford.
I wonder what the Part Town of New Hartford that encompasses New York Mills will be?
RE: Chief Philo is one of the biggest reasons why spending in New Hartford is out of control. When he appeared at a Town Board meeting a few months back to push for a new Town Courthouse, he commented that New Hartford should have a courthouse that "reflects the Town's affluence."
Strike: Did you mispell afflulence when you meant flatulence?
We know it smells to high heaven in the Town of New Hartford.
I wonder what the Part Town of New Hartford that encompasses New York Mills will be?
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