Town Highway Spending: Is Your Town Falling Behind?
As a follow-up to our last column on town budgets, we’ve added a table to our “Budget Scorecard Database” that ranks 27 Hudson Valley towns by the amount of money invested over the 2000-2004 period per mile of road in the town.
Our aim is to point out which towns have spent substantially less than average on their road systems and to prompt town officials and citizens to follow up on our statistics with more thorough examination. The table, Town Highway Capital Spending , also highlights those towns which have invested substantially more money than average over the five-year period, another topic for concerned citizens to pursue.
Please read the initial column, Budget Scorecard: Where Does Your Town Rank? , that puts the statistics and their intent into context.
And please send us your comments!
Comments
2 Responses to “Town Highway Spending: Is Your Town Falling Behind?”
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Dear James,
Please let me know how the per capita amout is figured? Is it census population or other? I would venture to guess that half of the properties in the Town of Taghkanic are second homes which pay property taxes, but are not counted in the census. If second-home residences are included, our average would go down. We are a very small town, but our taxes should not be this much above the average.
Thanks,
Erin Edwards
Taghkanic Town Board
Reply:
Erin,
The per capita figure is from the 2000 Census, and it reflects “primary” residents of the town. I don’t know the figures for Taghkanic, but in nearby towns only 10-25% of the houses are second homes. If Taghkanic did have a much higher percentage, say 50%, as second homes, the adjusted taxes per capita would be much lower, but I doubt your town is that different from others in the region. Check with you assessor’s office to get a better idea of what portion of the houses are occupied only a small portion of the time (or how many houses have their tax bills sent to an out-of-town address would give you a rough idea).
Just to flesh out the tax numbers a little, Taghkanic with population of 1,100 spent $670,000 in tax money in 2004; every other town in the county that spent that much or less has populations ranging from 1,400 (Austerlitz) to 2,200 (Stuyvesant). Milan, with a population four times Taghkanic’s, spent $840,000, only 25% more tax dollars that year.
James Sheldon
LittleTownViews.com
The analysis of town income and highway spending is an extremely valuable beginning to understanding Hudson Valley life. The seven southern Columbia County towns along with the three northern Dutchess towns comprise an economic region, being thrust into a development spiral that must be stopped. The way to preserve what we have is with the kind of intelligent analysis you are developing. Thank you.