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Shared Services Must Be Fair

It can’t be disputed that the town of Busti was wrong in the way it budgeted highway equipment purchases between its townwide and town-outside-village highway funds.

In 2014, town officials did not properly budget or allocate $135,000 in highway equipment purchases between the townwide and town-outside-village highway funds. As a result, the town unnecessarily increased tax rates for town residents living in Lakewood and lowered tax rates for town residents living outside of the village. Jesse Robbins, town supervisor, told auditors he intentionally misclassified the spending because he wanted village residents to pay what he perceived to be their fair share of highway expenditures. He said that the highway department already provides services to village residents at no cost; therefore, the reallocation of expenditures seemed appropriate.

Robbins, and by extension, the Busti Town Board were wrong in the way they handled the situation. But, the audit, and its fallout, also illustrates an issue that must be properly handled when it comes to shared services – who pays?

The state comptroller’s audit put on display, for all to see, what happens when one tries to put a dollar amount on the time and money spent helping neighbors. One government says it spent X, the second government responds it did Y. The tit-for-tat approach leads to hurt feelings that can take years to mend. “One of my biggest concerns is that if we set this precedent by keeping track of what one entity does, it puts the whole county in jeopardy,” Rudy Mueller, Busti Town Board member, said during a recent meeting. In a letter to the Reader’s Forum on this page, Sam Ognibene, Falconer public works superintendent, makes the argument it is important to help neighbors when there is a need. He is right, of course. We have seen, time and again, examples of towns and villages pitching in to help each other when disaster strikes. Municipalities must retain the flexibility to help each other when needed.

It is just as important, however, that municipalities find a way to properly account for shared services so one group of taxpayers isn’t unfairly penalized, as Lakewood was in 2014.

Many of these problems would be resolved if there were simply fewer governments and taxing jurisdictions involved in shared services; though we readily admit that particular wish isn’t going to come true anytime soon.

It seems people want to see more shared services. It seems people want to make sure shared services are handled equitably. Perhaps the county’s Regional Solutions Commission, led by legislator George Borrello, can make some recommendations that would make sure the issues we are seeing in Lakewood and Busti aren’t repeated.

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