Hillsdale Supervisor Art Baer’s letter to The Independent newspaper criticizing my last “Views From Gallatin” column takes aim at what he describes as my “superficial analysis and presentation of data” comparing tax rates and other fiscal measures of 28 towns in our region.

I would like to respond to each of his points, but first I would reiterate that the purpose of the budget columns and database is “to shed light on what drives our property taxes, and what we can do to control them” by comparing financial profiles of towns which may be facing very different fiscal challenges. As I wrote in the May 29 column for The Independent, the data, provided by the Office of the State Comptroller, “may not reflect the quality of services offered by different towns.”

The fact that Hillsdale in 2005 had the second-highest tax burden per capita among the 28 towns—66% above the average-- does not necessarily mean that Mr. Baer’s administration is doing a bad job. It could be that the town is financing more expensive services—such as maintaining its high proportion of unpaved town roads—or that it is providing a higher quality of services than neighboring towns.

Whatever the causes, however, Hillsdale is a “fiscally challenged” town, where high per capita costs are shouldered primarily by property taxpayers. Meeting the fiscal challenge with management skill, financial discipline, and political accountability is what Mr. Baer and his colleagues on the town board were elected to do. I wish them the very best of luck, and I hope my work can help them in their valuable efforts.

Now to his specific criticisms of the column:

1-- Mr. Baer claims my analysis does not fairly reflect different sources of revenue among towns, specifically citing Hillsdale’s lack of receipts from speeding tickets and other fines. Many other towns do receive substantial proceeds from these fines, which are combined with other non-tax revenues and labeled as “Unclassified Revenues” by the Comptroller, a category which, in 2005, provided Hillsdale with 25% more revenue per capita than the average town in the region.

2-- The supervisor points out that Hillsdale has less commercial property and more open agricultural land than many towns, which shifts the property tax burden to existing residential taxpayers. The town’s small tax base, however, is a boon which actually reduces cost pressures and total per capita taxes, according to extensive research findings that town taxes for all homeowners rise as open land is converted to home sites. Other studies suggests that, in most cases, the costs of providing public services for commercial establishments are greater than the added tax revenues they contribute to the town coffers.

3-- Mr. Baer rightly mentions in his letter that Hillsdale declined some 30 years ago to turn over the bulk of its roads to Columbia County, saddling the town with a relatively large road network, most of which remains unpaved and, therefore, more expensive to maintain. This may indeed explain why Hillsdale’s costs per mile of highway spending are much higher than in other sparsely populated towns. But the fact remains that the costs are higher and that the town’s property taxpayers will have to continue to pay for them.

4-- Finally, Supervisor Baer takes issue with my warning that towns like Hillsdale, which are building or expanding sewage treatment systems, could “see increasing property tax levies in the future.” If Hillsdale’s financing and construction plans proceed without a glitch, the town may be able to avoid the fate of many small municipalities, which have resorted to raising property taxes to extend and upgrade their sewage treatment facilities.

The supervisor’s interest is most appreciated, and he raises an important point which we addressed in our inaugural “Budget Scorecard” column a year ago when we wrote, “We urge readers to keep in mind that, in many cases, there may be sound financial and political reasons why a town spends much more than its peers: police services in one town may be more extensive than in another, dirt roads may be more expensive to maintain than a paved network, a new town hall, though costly, may be a welcome use of tax dollars.”

We look forward to more comments on our budget research from town officials, even if they are critical.