The Other Side of Dissolution - August 2009

A monthly newsletter written by Johnson City residents opposed to dissolving the Village of Johnson City.   Our goal is to help Johnson City residents make a better-informed choice, when the Dissolution Plan goes to vote.

Dissolution Study Committee Meetings: Article #13

Dissolution Plan Savings are Misleading to the Public
Written by Julie Deemie

The Johnson City Dissolution Committee released its initial Dissolution Plan to the public on July 20th.  The plan is available on-line at www.cgr.org/johnsoncity and at both Town of Union Libraries (George F. Johnson & Your Home Library) and the Johnson City Village Hall.

Across New York State there are more than 10,500 governmental entities (units) imposing taxes and fees.  These governmental entities include towns, villages, districts, and special districts such as water, sewer, and lighting districts.  The concept of dissolution is intended to reduce the number of entities, creating more efficiency.

The Johnson City dissolution Plan creates at least 6 new taxing units and/or special districts which would be imposed as tax line levies to the village residents, post dissolution.
These taxing units/special districts include fire, police, highway, parks and levys for debt pay down and retirement benefits.  There could possibly be a special lighting district due to our urban demographic.

Our village would in fact have more tax levies, post dissolution than prior, making our government LESS efficient than it is now.

With Dissolution the village taxpayers would forfeit their revenue generating departments and natural resources such as water.  We would also forfeit 3.4 million dollars in sales tax revenue to the Town.  Fire and police services would continue to be taxed to village property owners through new tax levies, for services provided through the County and the Village of Endicott.  We would lose our smaller government thereby diluting our voices.  We would risk losing the employees who know our community best through years of dedicated service.  The typical Johnson City resident would have the most to lose and least to gain with this plan.

In a report issued last year, The Association of Towns of The State of New York made the case that smaller governments are actually more efficient than larger ones. The association’s executive director, Jeffrey Haber said that “the whole consolidation movement is being pushed by people who  never served in local government.”  The idea of dramatic savings from consolidations “is being oversold.”

After reviewing the committee’s dissolution plan, I refreshed my memory of Town of Union tax levies by visiting www.gobroomecounty.com/realprop/taxrates#towncounty.  Here you will find up to date and useful tax rate information for all of Broome County.

I found several tax levies missing from the proposed plan.  These are levies currently being taxed to Town of Union property owners outside of the village.  If we were to dissolve we would also need to pay for these services which include Highway (40.05/1000), Parks (16.14/1000), Library (9.83/1000), and Ambulance (1.94/1000).  Although we currently pay Library and Ambulance tax district levies these do not appear as part of the dissolution plan.
This was confirmed to me by the hired consultant, Charles Zettek.  He wrote “the Plan as published does not attempt to address the sum of all taxes that would be paid by former village property owners.  The Plan was intended to only specifically address changes that would occur as a result of Dissolution, and the financial and tax implication of those changes.” 

These levies when combined total $67.96 per thousand of assessed value, assuming the current Town of Union rate.  Why were these left out of the formulation which predicted a 29.8% tax decrease?  Also not included is our debt pay down tax levy rate along with a retiree benefits tax levy rate.  As you will see in the attached chart, our tax savings decrease dramatically when these tax levies are factored in.  I feel that the committee needs to address why these tax levies were excluded from their predicted savings formulation.  Residents should demand these levy rates be publically known before the issue goes to the Village Board’s Public hearing on Sept. 2nd.
                                                                                                                                                           
This month’s quote:
What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expect generally happens.
       Benjamin Disraeli

It is important to remember that there are no “guarantees” with dissolution plans.  Resident voters and taxpayers have no recourse once the vote is complete.  According to the way the law is written - no village officials or committee members may be held liable if the plan should fail….. in any way.

Two public hearings are scheduled, where residents may learn more about the Johnson City Dissolution Plan and ask questions.  The meetings will be held August 10th and September 2nd at 7pm at the Johnson City High School.
It is my understanding that each person will be limited to one 3 minute question.