Time to Trim the Government Fat Part IV
'What we would have changed? We would have done it sooner'
"On Jan. 1, 2012, the Village of Seneca Falls was no more. It dissolved.
Nervous residents who feared the change still had their garbage picked up, water came out of the tap, and police officers and firefighters responded to calls".
"Both communities have a strong historical fabric and treasured business districts. Earle said the Village of Seneca Falls was being crippled with an astronomical tax rate that was chasing out residents. The village officials put off needed maintenance and infrastructure upgrades because of the rising tax burden, Earle said."
"A stronger community has emerged, with dramatically lower taxes for the former village residents, a manageable increase for residents outside the town, and improved overall services in Seneca Falls, Earle told a crowd at Medina Theatre."
It was a challenge transitioning the village services to the town, but Earle said he and most residents in Seneca Falls only have one regret in the process.
“What we would have changed?” Earle said. “We would have done it sooner.”
Village residents have seen their tax rate fall from about $17 to about $6 per $1,000 of assessed property with dissolution. The outside village residents were paying $1.86 per $1,000. Now they pay about $5 per $1,000 of assessed property (not including school and county taxes).
Most village employees did not lose their jobs. They became town employees, although they were paid at a lower rate. Earle said the village had a higher pay structure than in town.
Seneca Falls formed a town-wide police force and added three officers. Shelby Town Councilman Steve Seitz reiterated his concern that a dissolution plan for Medina calls for adding one full-time police officer despite expanding the coverage area from 3 to 98 square miles.
Seitz doesn’t think the Medina plan is realistic. It identifies $277,000 in operational savings and $541,000 in additional state aid for an overall $818,000 benefit in reduced taxes.
The town leaders also don’t trust the state to come through consistently with the $541,000 in aid for the Medina community.
Earle noted that Seneca Falls has received its promised state aid of $535,000 each of the past three years.
The Seneca Falls example isn’t the best comparison for the Medina dissolution, said Andina Barone, a public relations consultant for the towns of Ridgeway and Shelby. She noted the Village of Medina is about half in Shelby and half in Ridgeway, making it more challenging for a seamless transition.
Seneca Falls also has a large landfill and revenue from that helps drive down taxes in that community, Barone said.
Earle said villagers in Seneca Falls didn’t get a break in their village taxes from the landfill. Once the village dissolved, they were better able to receive the financial benefit of the landfill, he said.
Even without that landfill money, the village tax rate would have dropped from $16.93 to $9.18 per $1,000, he said.
“The long-term benefits are going to be tremendous,” he said. “You’re operating as one. You’re not competing against each other.”
Earle was asked about shared services talks between the village and town in Seneca Falls. It was a fruitless and frustrating exercise that wasn’t going anywhere."
Medina Mayor Andrew Meier said shared services haven’t resulted in much progress for nearly three years. He and other village residents noted the village pays $1.1 million in taxes to Ridgeway and Shelby, without getting anywhere close to $1.1 million in services.
A dissolution committee in Medina has suggested creating special taxing districts for village debt, a fire district, a town-wide police force for the two towns, an ambulance corporation that would contract with the fire district to continue the existing service, and an LDC (local development corporation) for water and sewer.
Earle said he didn’t like the idea of an LDC, of creating that layer of government"
Medina residents will vote on dissolution from noon to 9 p.m. on Tuesday at the Senior Center. Meier said he hopes it’s a first step to reducing government layers and driving down taxes in the community. He would like to then see the two towns work towards a merger.
The village is currently solvent and paying its bills, Meier said in response to a question.
However, the taxes are much higher within village borders, compared to residents who live outside village lines in the towns of Shelby and Ridgeway.
“The problem with the village, by the mere virtue of its existence, is we’re setting our residents up for double taxation,” Meier said. “That dramatically increases taxes for village residents.”
Part I
Part II
Part III
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