(MAYVILLE, NEW YORK) – Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Local 807 President Bonnie Peters will be back in attendance tonight - (Wednesday, June 7th) when Chautauqua County’s Legislators meet to conduct a Public Services Forum in Mayville – the second time in a week that she’ll continue to apply public heat on a county plan of action that encourages the merging and dissolution of its villages and towns.

Peters, who also serves as CSEA Region 6 Secretary and whose Southern Tier Local Union represents 1,600 County Members in 19 different units, spoke out at last week’s Legislative meeting where elected officials embraced a framework for a Government Reduction Initiative Plan.  The Jamestown Post-Journal reported that 18 County Legislators voted in favor of the proposal that would allow the county to allocate a village or town’s sales tax money after a successful dissolution or merger.  Only Democrat Bob Bankoski of Dunkirk voted against it.

As reported by The Post-Journal, for village dissolutions, the new entity - upon request - can receive funds based on the total sales tax payment received in the year preceding the dissolution. As for town consolidation, the newly-formed town can obtain funding equal to the sum of sales tax payments made to each municipality in the year preceding the consolidation.  Allocation of funding for either scenario wouldn’t exceed what Peters described as a $50,000 “incentive.”

Speaking to WNYLaborToday.com, Peters (pictured below) said she was confronted after last week’s meeting by one Legislator – whom she declined to identify – who personally blamed Peters “for costing Chautauqua County a ($20 million) grant by speaking out” against the Government Reduction Initiative Plan.  “It’s ‘amazing that I have so much power,’” Peters sarcastically said, adding: “This is just ‘insane.’  Does our State have ($20 million) to ‘give our county because I have a ‘better way to save the county that kind of money?  It’s ‘crazy.’”

The “better way” Peters was referring to involves targeting the “waste of money spent by our Industrial Development Agency” and the need to “claw back” taxpayer dollars given to those companies in the form of tax breaks, but who do not keep their word in terms of the number of jobs they have promised to create in exchange for the monetary help.

“That’s what I spoke about at last week Legislative meeting,” Peters told Your On-Line Labor Newspaper.  “They’re ‘wasting’ taxpayer money and ‘writing off’ ($1 million) in taxpayer dollars.  Instead (of the Government Reduction Initiative Plan), ‘have they ever considered utilizing clawbacks?’  There is ‘not one’ Labor person on the IDA (Industrial Development Agency) Board.  They are ‘all’ businessmen on the board.  If you’re ‘going to give businesses Chautauqua County taxpayer dollars, they need to spend it here in Chautauqua County.’”

Peters provided WNYLaborToday.com with the statement she made last week to County Legislators, which said:

This resolution is made to encourage the merging and dissolution of Villages and Towns.  You should know that as of now at least 63 dissolutions have failed in Western New York.  This shows us that voters believe in the layer of government that’s closest to them and that they have continually rejected attempts to take away or reduce the locally provided services upon which they rely.  In 2010, the Village of Seneca Falls voted to merge with the Town of Seneca Falls - effective January 2012.  The dissolution of the village resulted in the resident’s taxes going up.  This proves that dissolutions do not always result in lower property taxes.  In fact, in almost every instance where a village has been dissolved, the realized tax savings were significantly smaller than those promised prior to the vote.  While dissolution does not universally mean lower taxes, it does however almost always result in a reduction in the services that residents have come to rely on. 
   
In simply looking at Seneca Falls and acknowledging that not every merger results in a tax savings, then hopefully you can also see that passing a resolution which prejudges all dissolutions and mergers to be beneficial to the county is premature at best.  I’m sure that almost all Legislators sitting here today pride themselves on being proponents of small government. 

Despite Governor Andrew Cuomo’s attempt to have Albany sway village voters into dissolving, those 63 failed dissolution attempts demonstrate that the decision to dissolve or not should be made by the village voters rather than by outside interests.  As such, the last thing we need is the County Legislature telling the residents of Silver Creek, of Lakewood, or of Fredonia, just to name a few, what’s best for them. 
 
As a taxpayer, I wholly applaud the county’s attempt to save tax dollars.  However, I would encourage the county to look at all of the waste in the IDA before you encourage towns stripping away the vital services their residents have come to depend on.  Look no further than the recent instance of when the directors of the IDA authorized the cancelation of $1 million in loans to Jamestown MVP Plastics, LLC that had goals of producing 125 jobs.  How many new jobs did our $1 million create for our county?  The Chautauqua County IDA Uniform Tax Exemption Policy and Guidelines addresses the Recapture of Benefits.  Has our IDA ever utilized the clawback of funds?  Did we get any of the money back from Jamestown MVP Plastics? 
 
This is not an isolated occurrence.  

I do not oppose the use of PILOT agreements or other incentives to attract business in an attempt to revitalize our county’s economy.  However, the IDA should be judicious and vigilant any time they give out taxpayer’s resources.  The countless millions wasted on the IDA’s failed inducements far out weight the paltry savings the county could hope to enjoy even if all of the encouraged dissolutions came to fruition.   
 
Is there a member of Labor on the IDA board?  No there isn’t.  I have to wonder with so much of our county being Laborers why isn’t there?
 
I believe being open, honest and transparent to the people of Chautauqua County regarding the IDA is important, so I ask you before you establish a plan to give away tax dollars by cutting local services - you should first re-evaluate the IDA and tell the tax payers why we just gave away a million dollars. 

When making these decisions I urge the Legislature to choose to be penny wise rather than pound foolish.  

To Read The Jamestown Post-Journal’s Story, Headlined: Government Reduction Initiative Approved, Go To: www.post-journal.com/news/page-one/2017/05/government-reduction-initiative-approved/