HERE & THERE COLUMN

The Need For One County Government


  With the newspaper headlines reading "Still At Odds Over Sales Tax" there is really only one remedy for this subject and that is to convert all township, village and school districts into one county government.
  In what has been described as "a sometimes tense meeting" between  County Legislature Chairman Luis Alvarez and various town supervisors on whether the county should now finalize a shared sales tax agreement proposed a year ago it was firmly decided it's not going to go anywhere at this time.
  As we have pointed out so many times in the past the population of Sullivan County has too many governments.

  The disagreement which exists at present time between the townships and the county legislature would easily be eliminated if the county had just one government.
  A formal joining of a county with town, village and school district governments would be called a consolidation and the resulting unified body assumes the responsibilities of all of the above.
  A consolidation could have the potential to do the following:

  1. Produce cost savings.
  2. Increase efficiency.
  3. Improve resource base.
  4. Enhance planning capacity.
   A consolidation would certainly result in improved accountability and responsibility for services would no longer be in dispute as it is now between separate governments.

  Under one government each existing township, village and school district would become a district (call it any name) and voters in that district would elect representatives to the one single government.

  Sullivan County presently supports a county government, 15 township governments, 6 village governments and 6 school districts all with a population of a little over 77,000 people.
  Folks......we have too much government that is costing us too many tax dollars.