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Who will fund services if dissolution happens?

Posted 11/1/11

To the Editor: Letters on dissolution of Potsdam Village so far haven’t addressed one scary problem. What will he entities that take over public services be? Publicly funded services or private …

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Who will fund services if dissolution happens?

Posted

To the Editor:

Letters on dissolution of Potsdam Village so far haven’t addressed one scary problem. What will he entities that take over public services be? Publicly funded services or private ones?

Federal engineers of “budget reform” are throwing public services out right & left. As funding for education, health, welfare etc. drops or ends, states are picking up those tabs.

Cuomo is following New Jersey’s Christie and happily cutting Civil Services. We can be sure NY State will NOT support local water, security, education and waste disposal.

Public services are paid by citizens through taxes. Private services are paid by customers to corporations. Costs of public services are subject to public review. Private services account first & foremost to their stockholders.

NAFTA’s and other trade deals’ surrender of public oversight has spurred the privatization of our economy. Corporations in the U.S, Canada and Mexico are now working their way down the levels of government control over services and resources.

It’s the states’ turn, and state governments all over the country are pushing dissolution. It helps cut their budgets. It also opens the door big time for private enterprise.

A prime target is rights to water. A lot of multinational corporations are set to jump at control over this vital necessity.

Public control of local water supplies is at serious risk.

Can you trust the state to pick up the tabs? Think about it.

Think about a corporately owned police force. You may not like taxes.

You’d better believe privatization will end up costing you more.

Think twice about where -- and how much -- you’d rather pay for your services.

Margaret Weitzmann

Potsdam