Government, Unlimited?

County Executive Robert Bondi believes the time has come to redesign and reorganize Putnam County government.

Many residents agreed with the county’s top elected official at a series of public forums this week in Patterson, Brewster, and Philipstown.

Calling the current form of government an “endangered species,” Bondi wants to hear how the public perceives government from the “bottom up. I want to know what the grassroots level is thinking about their schools, county, and towns.”

Bondi began each meeting with the astonishing fact that in Putnam County 120 individual taxing districts exist. He displayed a chart which detailed those districts—Patterson’s 14, seven taxing districts in Southeast; five in Kent, 23 in Putnam Valley, 13 in Philipstown, and an amazing 58 separate taxing districts in the Town of Carmel.

Bondi’s goal is to ask the public to “propose a new system of governance assuming the county never existed. The only way to achieve real change in government is with the support of its residents.”

On Monday, Bondi and his Deputy County Executive John Tully welcomed 69 people to Patterson Town Hall for the initial forum that was followed on Tuesday in Brewster and on Wednesday evening in Philipstown.

Schools took it on the chin at the forums. Daniel Coombs of Patterson called it “ridiculous” to have six school districts in Putnam County: “School taxes are chasing people out of our county all because teachers and administrators are making large salaries. Schools no longer need qualified teachers. Kids can learn on computers.”

Chris Boryk, Patterson’s assessor, questioned the consolidation of assessor’s offices as a way of reducing spending.

John Boyle of Patterson charged the current form of county government wasn’t working: “We don’t need all these layers of government. Bring back the Board of Supervisors!”

Phyllis Noonan of Mahopac called the current tax collection and billing process in government archaic: “Why can’t the Commissioner of Finance do all the tax billing? Why must schools, towns and the county all send out tax bills? This is wasteful spending.”

Phil Capalbo, a member of the Patterson Highway Department, feared for his job should consolidation occur: “We can’t eliminate jobs but must strive to figure out how to make things better.”

Patterson Councilwoman Ginny Nacerino agreed that most residents in Putnam County were “tapped out and taxed out. This is a profound undertaking that needs much thought and consideration.”

Patterson Supervisor Michael Griffin expressed appreciation for the executive’s effort but he feared that Bondi might be spinning his wheels: “Not a single piece of legislation exists in Albany today that deals with consolidation of school districts or fire departments. A lot of problems must be solved in Albany but we can’t get our state leaders to fix anything. How do we get Albany to pay attention to our needs and wishes? I don’t know!”

During his State of the County address last month, Bondi said people were angry with the high cost of property taxes that have “proven to be unbearable in the great recession causing one in every five deeds recorded in foreclosure. Does Putnam County need or want 120 separate taxing districts in their future?”

On Monday, Bondi said the issues of change were “staring us straight in the face. Our government has grown with appendages being added on to resemble a Rube Goldberg type of machine that makes little sense. Reconsideration from the ground up is needed to reconfigure government in a coherent way that addresses the needs of the future in an affordable way. Sacred cows are no more. Politics be damned!”

Bondi wants the public to come forward and demand reorganization of municipal and other services to “provide greater efficiency and cost reductions. The luxury of maintaining duplication of important services by each and every municipality is financially untenable. Do we need a tax assessor in every town? What about a consolidated approach to highway departments? Is county government necessary for 100,000 residents?”

Although Putnam is ranked second lowest in New York State in terms of county government taxes as a percentage of the total property tax bill, the county is ranked fourth highest across New York in terms of the total property tax bill homeowners pay. A recent survey indicated that Putnam property owners pay the tenth highest amount of property taxes across America or $4,000 for every man, woman and child in the county.

Bondi says “now is the time when local citizens become actively involved to make wholesale changes in their local government.”

In addition to the three meetings held this week, Bondi has scheduled sessions for Cold Spring on April 21, Putnam Valley on April 26, Kent on April 27, Southeast on April 28, and in Carmel on April 29.

Each of the meetings will be held at the town or village hall at 7 pm.