Reflections on the Brockport Vote

Readers may recall our views on eliminating, or formally consolidating, units of local government such as villages:   do so if you have good reasons, but don't expect it to be the answer to relieving New York's sky-high tax burden.   It won't, because school taxes and state taxes comprise most of that burden.   Remember, depending on where you live in Monroe County, school taxes make up anywhere from 70% to 80% of your property tax bill.

However, you may have other reasons to favor a dissolution or consolidation.   Notwithstanding our take on the issue generally, had I lived in Brockport I probably would have voted last mTuesday in favor of dissolving the Village.   Brockport has had a troubled history with village government.   As we know, actual Brockport residents thought differently, and voted ovedrwhelmingly to retain their village form of goverment.

A few final observatons on the Brockport vote.

First, it demonstrated how hard New York's public employee aristocracy fights any change to the status quo.   In Brockport, the biggest potential losers, had the village been dissolved, would have been the Police Department.

There are eleven Brockport village policemen.   Six make over $100,000 per year.   No wonder the police did their best to throw a good scare into residents, about disastrous consequences for their safety if the village government were scrapped.   Even though, with no police force, the Sheriff's office would take over.   And even though the Town of Sweden might well have retained the department.   But when you're making the big bucks, you don't leave anything to chance.

Secondly, the vote underscored once more the irrelevance of the Democrat and Chronicle's editorial page to people's values, concerns, and to what's going on in their lives.   With myopic determination, the D&C has been beating the drum of dissolution and consolidation for years, and came out directly and strongly in favor of dissolving Brockport, hammering the issue in the weeks before the vote.   Their arguments didn't impress the voters.