A NEW "OLDE SARATOGA"

That New York State has the highest taxes in the country is a national disgrace. We all agree. That our vast maze of overlapping local governments is horrendously inefficient there is no disputing. It is numbing to think that in the name of tax relief the best our State legislature can think up is a cap the amount by which taxes can be raised.

Voters and taxpayers are righteously indignant. Most are looking for a way to “just say NO!” – Or - better yet, kick the political establishment somewhere where it hurts. Who can’t identify with some part of that feeling?

Our politically savvy Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo has gotten a good whiff of this sentiment. He is sponsoring programs that would make it easier for governments to “consolidate” and theoretically become more efficient. The pundits say he has earned some important political capital in so doing. Some in our area are actively seeking the dissolution of local Village governments; a case and point, the governments of the Villages of Schuylerville and Victory.

It is very easy to point out the ungainly nature of government at such a local level. After all, in the case of these two governments, both incorporated in the 1800’s to meet the needs of energetic mill-town economies, every thing within their boundaries has changed since their inception except the governments themselves. The mills are shuttered, the railroad torn up and mainstreet has been malled practically to death. The economy that supports the village residents today no longer represents the economic efforts of the local businesses and industries which called these governments into being in the first place. It is a fact that these governments remain as “micro” entities now contained within a completely changed “macro” economy.

Obsolete? Maybe, but before we throw them all down, we should remember that smashing uncomfortable furniture with a hammer doesn’t make it any more comfortable. Before we dissolve or consolidate our ancient governments we have to ask the questions: dissolve into what? And consolidate with whom? Eliminating the Village governments, while tempting, is not going to automatically make our situation any better, or, for that matter, reduce the cost of doing things that Town governments weren’t designed to do. The Town of Saratoga, for example, is a broad county subdivision also containing huge rural landscapes, farms, recreational lake properties and suburbs of Saratoga Springs. Those interests don’t necessarily share the needs or the potential of the river communities to their east. Nor are they likely to want to subsidize anyone else’s needs through a raise in their own taxes.

Rather than basing our actions on what it is we don’t want, it would be more productive to focus on what we do. It would be better to consider an area, which could become a natural “macro” for the current Schuylerville/Victory community. Such an area would include the major assets of each village joined with their surrounding neighborhoods to create a viable entity within which to plan a healthy forward platform for development. Such a platform could support the needs of the population and spin-off businesses of the huge development in the Luther Forest just down the road.

Many of the observers of the current economic crisis are predicting that the successful communities of America’s future will not be based on suburban sprawl and so totally reliant on the automobile. They will be denser, better planned, fully integrated communities which can constitute a viable local economy on their own. If you inventory the assets of Schuylerville/Victory and their immediate surroundings… the amazing river, the public infrastructure and its potential for expansion, the downtown and its potential for renewal, the possibilities for carefully planned growth … just such a community can easily be envisioned.

Think of an area beginning roughly at the bridge in Northumberland and running south to Coveville, from the river west to Grangerville. Like pot bound seedlings set out to grow strong, all landowners in such a subdivision would see their property values increase as the community blossomed into a new more realistic context. And, by the way, governance of such an area might be ideally suited for the corporate powers village governments were originally meant to provide. In addition, such a village could exist on both sides of town lines (e.g. Northumberland and Saratoga) just as the Village of Cambridge does today in White Creek and Cambridge.

It is always easier to be against something than it is to build something new. At this moment in our country’s history it is time to be positive, to live up to the potential for greatness which is our constitutional endowment. It would take spending the State’s consolidation planning grants studying this, many nights of meetings, public debates, referenda, and all that to bring about a rebirth of the River community. I am not interested in the hammer to the furniture approach. I am interested in contributing to building something new and better. I would call such a new community “Olde Saratoga”

Dave Roberts, President, Schuylerville Area Chamber of Commerce