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Washingtonville must sell voters on need for money

Officials of the village of Washingtonville have apparently lost sight of who they are working for, otherwise they wouldn’t be so quick to make plans to thwart the will of the voters.

Last December, Village Council voted to impose a .5 percent income tax on its paycheck-earning residents. Council decided to enact the tax after four operational levies had been rejected by voters since 2015.

Collection of the income tax began in January and was expected to generate $70,000, while the rejected levy would have garnered only $18,700.

Three residents opposed to the imposed tax circulated petitions to place a repeal on the Nov. 6 ballot. Enough signatures were garnered and now it will be up to voters whether or not the tax will continue to be collected.

Council, however, is determined not to be denied in its effort to collect this money from its residents and businesses.

At Monday’s meeting, council discussed preparing a new ordinance imposing a 1 percent income tax if the repeal is successful. This way they could avoid a “gap” in collections.

Obviously the village is in need of funds and voters have not been forthcoming in approving what the town needs to operate. But plotting to intentionally override the will of the voters is not the way to fix these financial problems.

Council needs to embark on a public relations campaign to sell the voters on the need to pay for the services they expect from the village. Open the books and show them exactly how much money is needed and how it is being spent.

Then if the voters don’t step up and provide the funds, start curtailing essential services. If those services are important to residents, they will need to ante up to pay for them, or learn to live without them when they aren’t provided.

If citizens are adamant about not paying more taxes, they’ll simply repeal the new tax, too, and council will be back at square one.

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