Here is a big shout out and thank you to everyone for working together to make this happen.
Read more about the Washington County Beach staying open in the Post Star.
Tax Report Card
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With the 2009 year almost upon us, one of the topics the Huletts Current will be addressing in the weeks ahead will be the taxing policies of the jurisdictions that we find ourselves part of. Today we release our “historical report card” for the tax and spend policies for the Town of Dresden, Washington County and the Whitehall School District. |
The Town of Dresden over the last 30 years has established itself as a “low tax” Town that works very hard at keeping expenditures low. For the past two years running, the Town Board has cut the amount of money raised from taxes and Town taxes have actually decreased. A few years ago during a state audit, the Town Board members actually came to the Town Hall and counted certain assets like chairs, etc., themselves! For this the Town of Dresden gets an “A” for their wise stewardship of our tax dollars over the past 30 years.
Washington County has been more of a “mixed bag” with its historic taxing policy. We give it a “C+”. Over the last 30 years spending has continually grown, but much of this is because federal and state mandates have been imposed on the counties with no corresponding state or federal aid. However, Washington County needs to do a lot more in terms of attracting business and “growing the tax base.” Recently computer chip manufacturer, AMD, has announced a major new facility in neighboring Saratoga County. The southern towns of Washington County are poised to grow with this facility located nearby. Hopefully, this will attract businesses and residents to Washington County.
The Whitehall School District’s tax and spend policies over the last 30 years have been an unmitigated disaster for the taxpayers of the District and earn it a solid “F”. They have driven almost all business from Whitehall with their excessive spending. This is part of a “Letter to the Editor” that I wrote to the Whitehall Times a few months ago. “I went back to the 1970’s and looked at the budget for the Whitehall school district and compared it to spending for this current school year. For the 1974-1975 school year, the entire budget was $2,443,937 and the amount raised from property taxes was $704,000. Enrollment was right around 1100 students. For the 2007-2008 year, the entire budget is $12,960,569 and the amount raised from property taxes is $4,805,069. Enrollment is 900 students. That means that over the last 33 years, the total budget increased 430% and the amount raised from property taxes increased 582% while enrollment was falling by 200 students! These increases far outpace both inflation and the Consumer Price index for this period. The amount of the budget raised from property taxes went from 28.08% of the budget to 37.07%. “
The members of the school board are elected for staggered terms in May. We will be informing you this year as we get closer to the election about which candidates are committed to cutting taxes and who is not, because we can no longer sit on the sidelines while our money is spent like this. “F’s” make the Current move.
Looks Like a White Christmas
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We had our first significant snowfall in Huletts yesterday. All total, we got about 6 – 7 inches. If you’re planning on heading up for the weekend, we would advise you to be very careful. |
Alot of people are without power in southern Washinton County but everything is good here. We will try to take some pictures for those who are in more southern parts of the country right now. It should be a white Christmas though!
Dresden Town Meeting – Monday Night
The regularly scheduled meeting of the Dresden Town Board was relatively quiet on Monday night (12/8/08). Supervisor Banks did reiterate that even if funding for the Washington County Beach was cut from the Washington County Budget, the Town would find a way to keep the beach open.
Read the Flyer – Learn the Facts
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We received the following flyer from Sue Foster Ives, whose father was instrumental in creating the Washington County Park. |
She raises some very good points and has gathered some great info about the Supervisors who voted against the Washington County Beach funding.
Beach Vote – More Facts
We thought you would find the following information useful. On the recent vote to approve some funding for the Washington County Beach (which was defeated), out of the 17 Supervisors, 11 voted for the Beaches, 5 voted against the Beaches, with 1 member absent. Fort Edward, Kingsbury and Granville (Towns with the most weighted votes) all voted “NO”.
We will continue to update you on this issue in the days ahead.
Email to the Editor
My Fellow Dresden Landowners:
I am sharing this below information so that you will be aware of the happenings at the Washington County Government level.
Some of you will ignore this email; some of you will read it and return to your every day pastimes; however, I am seriously counting on the fact that some of you will let the County Hierarchy know exactly how you feel about the use of your tax dollars and make great use of the phone numbers and e-mail addresses listed below, as well as passing this email on to others who you believe are as equally concerned about this cut to the Washington County Budget.
Of course, the present Supervisors are probably unaware that part of the reason the public park was put in Huletts Landing, years ago, was to curtail the public from going across private property to access the lake, so they have not added the extra expense to the line item of the Sheriff’s Department Budget yet.
Thank you for your time and efforts,
Very truly yours,
Sue Foster Ives
Phone#’ & Email Addresses:
Washington County Board of Supervisors: 518/746-2210
Chairperson Joanne Trinkle: 518/677-3324
Vice Chairperson Donald Wilbur: 518/692-7137
Budget Officer Gayle Hall: 518/761-4040; bricare@capital.net
Total Sewer Taxes Decrease
This is another good sign of fiscal responsibility by the members of our Dresden Town Board.
The 2009 adopted budget for the Huletts Landing Sewer District # 1 shows a very slight increase in the amount to be raised by taxes of $400. Spending in 2008 was $42,000, spending for 2009 is budgeted at $42,400. For the Fredericks Point Sewer District # 2, the amount to be raised by taxes decreases by $1,300. Spending in 2008 was $25,500, spending for 2009 is budgeted at $24,200.
Thank you Dresden Town Board for “getting it”.
Washington County Beach – Continued
Updated – Saturday, November 22, 2008 10:15 am
In an attempt to give our readers the facts behind the cut in funding to the Washington County beach, the Huletts Current contacted Bob Banks, Town Supervisor of Dresden. Mr. Banks is our representative on the Washington County Board of Supervisors.
To begin, the County is under tremendous pressure to cut their budget not because spending is increasing, but because both revenue and state aid is declining because of the overall economy. It was not reported in the Post Star that the Board of Supervisors actually cut $750,000 from the budget yesterday. They should be commended for this stance, because the last thing a bad economy needs is more taxes. We in Huletts have struggled under the burden of high propery taxes for many years.
Mr. Banks assured us that the Washington County Beach will be open this upcoming year. It appears to him that the operation of the beach may be able to pay for itself with increased user fees and some adjustments in spending. If Washington County is not able to make these adjustments, the Town of Dresden will enter into some type of agreement to run the beach and to see that the beach remains open.
We will keep our readers informed as this develops.
Breaking News – Washington County Funding Cut
We’ll find out more about this in the hours ahead.
The Washington County Board of Supervisors have cut funding for the Washington County Beach for 2009
Dresden Gets It Right – Cuts Taxes
Dresden recently released it’s 2009 budget which shows the amount to be raised by taxes will be $1,500 less than 2008. This translates into a 0.50 percent reduction in taxes from 2008 to 2009. While the budget grows a little over 9 % from the 2008 amount, this growth is offset by new revenues. Congratulations to our Dresden Town Board for lowering taxes 2 years in a row. This is a perfect example of keeping government spending and taxes in check, a lesson that the Whitehall School District hasn’t learned yet.
Please Bear With Us
Please bear with us as we upgrade and improve our site during the next two weeks. Our goal is to have a fully operational and extremely cool site with advanced functionality by the the middle of December. Stay with us – you’ll be glad you did.
Let Your Christmas Cards & Packages Begin in Huletts
It looks like for the first time in history the U.S. Postal Service will eliminate jobs. Small Post Offices are rated not only by the amount of mail that they disburse, but also by the amount of postage that they sell. While the Postal Service has not indicated that they will close any Post Offices at this time, we encourage you to buy your postage from the Huletts branch. It means much more to them, than some giant suburban branch. So if you send a check to Postmaster, Huletts Landing, you will receive your postage in a few days.
So before you begin your holiday mailings, drop Pam a note and thank her for the wonderful job she does and buy a few Christmas and priority mail stamps from her at the same time.