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Colton man says ominous new year ahead for taxpayers

Posted 12/9/15

To the Editor: The New Year looms ominously for the working people and retirees of Colton. Having watched in horror as the town supervisor and board blithely bungled the agreement with Brookfield …

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Colton man says ominous new year ahead for taxpayers

Posted

To the Editor:

The New Year looms ominously for the working people and retirees of Colton. Having watched in horror as the town supervisor and board blithely bungled the agreement with Brookfield Renewable Energy, granting a sweetheart tax deal to that extraordinarily profitable company, and having had to dip into their life savings to pay the exorbitant increase in expropriatory taxes this year, they must now dread a new year of even higher taxes and more financial tomfoolery.

In October, the board passed a law “to allow the Town of Colton to adopt a budget for the fiscal year 2016 that requires a real property tax levy in excess of the 'tax levy limit' as defined by General Municipal Law §3-c.” This local law was enacted in a fifteen-minute, ill-publicized meeting that should never have taken place outside of a regularly-scheduled town meeting. Such irregular scheduling suggests a puerile attempt on the part of the supervisor and board to avoid scrutiny and dupe residents.

In the notice regarding the tax increase posted on the Town of Colton website, the supervisor gives no reason for the override; no new expenses or services are adduced to justify the increase. This means that all monies that will come into the town coffers as a result of the override will go into a general fund, which will be used to gratify whatever fancies, whims, and caprices that might whirl and twist through the heads of the supervisor and board. With this law, the board has given itself carte blanche to dispose of the wealth of the citizens of Colton as it deems fit.

People are sometimes prey to bizarre money disorders characterized by reckless and impoverishing extravagance. It is sad enough when the management of such afflicted individuals puts a strain on their family. But when the disoriented and obsessed hold public office, the consequences of their disorders are magnified a thousandfold. They are no longer dissipating merely their own savings, but the savings of the residents of an entire town!

At this holy time of the year, the Colton town supervisor and board should muster their contemplative abilities and make an examination of conscience, asking themselves by what right do they lay their hands on their neighbors' goods.

Kevin Beary

Colton