This page contains information on some of the important issues in the Town
Scroll on down and find out some of the facts.
- Comprehensive Plan
- Fiscal Responsibility
- Audit? What audit?
- The Budget
Scroll on down and find out some of the facts.
Comprehensive Plan
The Town of Chatham has recently passed a new, forward looking Comprehensive Plan. Implementation of the plan will require significant work by the town board and the community. The plan includes priorities and a timetable. To meet those goals, the new member of the board should be prepared to roll up their sleeves and work with the existing board and the community to ensure the Plan is implemented in a timely and fair manner.
There are many needs in the town. To name just a few: providing quality services in an efficient manner; restraining growth in our property taxes; providing affordable housing; preserving property values. The Plan tries to balance all of these, sometimes conflicting, needs.
Why does the Town of Chatham need a Comprehensive Plan? Here's a comment from John B. Conglose of Ohio State University.
"An old saying amongst those in the planning profession is that if you fail to plan, in reality what you are doing is planning to fail. Communities are always facing this dilemma. If the community you work, play, and live in does not have a plan for its future, what ultimately may happen is that the community will fail to adapt to change. The community will fail to take advantage of opportunities."
He's written a good article on Comprehensive Planning and it's history - which dates back to Colonial Willamsburg, by the way. The Town of Chatham also had a previous Comprehensive Plan, but it was 30 years old, and long out of date. That's why the community got together, involving more than 100 residents over five years, to put together a Plan that was ultimately unanimously approved by the Town Board.
Now we're hearing lots of scary things about that plan from the same people who approved it. It will raise taxes, add new fees, cause a terrible burden to the town and the hamlets. Most of that is simply not true, and not included in the Plan.
Fiscal Responsibility
There's been a lot of talk about fiscal responsibility by the Republican candidates, and more talk about keeping taxes low. So let's see the record of the current administration. Below are the actual numbers from the Town of Chatham budgets.
Perhaps the first column doesn't look too bad, but look at it compared to inflation - shown in the last column. Inflation has averaged only 2.5% over the last seven years, yet the budget has gone up 5.5%, and tax levies have increased a whopping 10.8%. Clearly this is not sustainable. So the next time you hear the town council members masquerading as fiscal conservatives, you might ask them about this.
Audit? What audit?
One would think it might be important to have a outside audit of a town's financial books from time to time. One need not look any further than Kinderhook or Greenport to understand why. It turned out that an employee was embezzling large sums of money in those instances. Clermont, Canaan and Taghanic all have had recent audits or are planning on one. Chatham?
Still have Questions?
Have we answered all your questions? If not, drop us a note with a topic that you'd like to find out more about. Sorry, we can't answer questions about the beginnings of the Universe, or who's going to be the next American Idol. Questions limited to issues surrounding the Town of Chatham.