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There is an historic vote coming to the voters of Johnson City, NY on Tuesday. They will decide whether or not to dissolve the Village of Johnson City and join with the surrounding Town of Union–merging the two entities into one. The reason? Supposedly to save money. But as I’ve pointed out a number of [...]

A few months ago, the Binghamton-Johnson City Joint Sewage Treatment Plant’s board put forth a budget with a 63 percent increase. Believe me folks, I don’t make this stuff up! New state and federal “mandates” placed on the plant to clean up discharges into the Susquehanna River are being blamed, in part, for the increase. [...]

Below is my reaction to the Press & Sun-Bulletin editorial titled Taxpayers fund too many layers in today’s issue. Once again the P&SB is beating the drum for political consolidation and misleading people into confusing a consolidation of services– like police and fire–with the elimination of local political entities, like towns and villages.
My response:
Consolidate services? [...]

I’ve written before about the folly of municipal political consolidation. The Press & Sun-Bulletin reports today that a group of people in the Village of Windsor appointed to study dissolution of the Village (and merger with the Town) spent a year looking at it and came to the same conclusion.
According to the article:
…a nine-member committee…spent [...]

More talk of dissolution from our local government leaders. The drumbeat gets louder. I’ve written on this topic before (Efforts to Consolidate Local Government a Dead Issue). The latest leader talking about it is John Bertoni (D), Mayor-Elect of Endicott. Mr. Bertoni has asked two Endicott trustees to attend the Johnson City meetings on dissolving [...]

For some time now, I’ve had a growing suspicion that the calls to “consolidate” local governments, perhaps even up to and including the county level, have less to do with saving money and more to do with increasing political control from a centralized source. It seems to me that sharing some services may make sense [...]