Commentary by Gaetana Ciarlante
16/10/24 10:50
The following commentary on the Pro-housing Proposal is from the acting-chair, Gaetana Ciarlante:
For several months the Pro-housing proposal, presented to us as Governor Hochul's executive order, has been floating around our town and village boards . Basically it goes like this: "Start giving up the town's rights to self-rule and if you don’t, we'll cut off the possibility that you could get grants from the state." Notice that grants have already been paid for with our taxes. At the last town board meeting it was voted down 3:2. But it is back on the agenda for this Wednesday night as Supervisor Costello has promised the village board he can get town board members to switch their votes.
This Pro-housing proposal was voted down last year in the state legislature, but In true autocratic action, which seems to be acceptable in New York state, Governor Hochul made it an executive order, circumventing our state's checks and balances.. Town boards can vote no; they do not have to comply; but that action would require true concern for its citizens, courage, leadership skills rather than making backroom deals.
Almost everything that we see at a town board meeting is for show and deals have already been made with a select few. (In fact it has become the Supervisors practice to add items to the agenda without announcing them to the public.) For example, one of the organizations promoting this latest Trojan Horse is Shout Out Saugerties. Apparently they circulated a survey asking respondents which issues were important. But the survey was announced to a select few. (It could have been mailed along with tax bills.) I became aware of it through the Democrat party to whom it was sent by Supervisor Costello. At the end of last month's town board meeting I asked the representative of Shout Out Saugerties how I could participate in this survey and she said they were no longer doing it because the Pro-housing Proposal was voted down. But in fact this Shout Out Saugerties was instrumental in getting the Village to pass the Pro-housing resolution on October 7th at a meeting that likely violated open government laws. But who is Shout Out Saugerties? Why do they hold so much clout? They certainly were never voted into a position of such influence in our town. And the question remains: why do we need more "affordable" housing projects? It is common knowledge now that the birth rate for American families is less than the replacement rate. In addition, many of our own children have moved away in pursuit of making a living wage. The "affordable" housing projects are subsidized with our taxes with long time home owners giving up their homes. Since the pandemic the death rate has skyrocketed leaving many surviving spouses to be forced out of their houses because they could not afford to pay the property and school taxes on one income. Do these folks really want to leave their homes or are they being left with no choice? Their worries about closing their homes continue to fall on the deaf ears of the town and village board? ? I think we know what the plan is but it is too horrible to accept; we were raised to trust our government, 'though now very few do as we can see with this latest bate and switch maneuver happening in our town.