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 times before on this blog, consolidation of political entities rarely saves money in the long run, never saves money in the short run, and ends of stripping the citizens of their ability to influence and affect their own destiny by putting more distance between the voters and their elected representatives. In short, it’s a bad move.

This vote all got started a few years ago with mismanagement of union contracts for fire protection and other services in the Village. The unions got too much (with some firefighters getting nearly $100K a year!) and it’s breaking the back of JC taxpayers. I can sympathize with those that think by dissolving the politicial entity it will release them from the heavy tax burden. The problem is, you just shift the burden. The good folks of JC will still need fire protection, and if they can’t raise a volunteer fire department to do it and they need to pay people, what makes you think shifting it to the township level will somehow make it all go away?

In the end, what happens is that locally elected representatives for each precinct and district go away–representatives who are part time and paid very little for what they do–and you end up with less representation of your interests. You have fewer people to pressure about getting the potholes fixed on your street. That is, government becomes less responsive. Overall, I find that people who lobby for dissolution of our local political entities in favor of consolidation with larger entities view government as a benevolant ruling function that benefits society. I do not. I, like the founding fathers of our great nation, see government as a necessary evil–with a very limited role to play in peoples’ lives. The people who are in government are our servants–they work for us! NOT the other way around.

I’ll say what I’ve always said on this issue: Consolidate some of your services (like fire and police) with surrounding political entities like the Town of Union or the even Broome County. And share the cost that way. But don’t, for pete’s sake, dissolve the political structure of the Village because you think you’ll save a few dollars on your taxes. It won’t happen, and you’ll lose something far more precious–your political voice.

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